


A Pokémon Professor

by Ser_Alexi_of_the_NorthernWood



Series: W.I.P's [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Human/Pokemon Relationship(s), M/M, Pokemon Journey, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:22:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 52,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ser_Alexi_of_the_NorthernWood/pseuds/Ser_Alexi_of_the_NorthernWood
Summary: After his name comes out of the goblet Harry leaves the Wizarding World behind, being offered a choice by Mew. He doesn’t have active magic anymore but his passive magic allows him to understand pokespeak, even if most Pokémon have rather underdeveloped vocabularies. After saving a baby Pokémon and being taken in by professor Oak, Harry grows into himself, being encouraged to stretch himself to the fullest of his abilities. With natural curiosity and intelligence Harry walks the road of a Pokémon professor. He’s not going to stop there however, the youngest ever Pokémon professor is about to start his very own Pokémon journey!
Relationships: Harry Potter/Sakaki | Giovanni
Series: W.I.P's [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2118585
Comments: 47
Kudos: 133





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.maptoglobe.com/HyrbMyvP8
> 
> This is the map I’m using of all the regions if anyone wants a visual

Harry shoved his face into the pillow and screamed, not afraid anyone would hear him. He’d put a silencing spell up around his bed after his and Ron’s fight. Jealousy, Ron was jealous of Harry. Jealous that Harry was probably going to die. Harry screamed again, the release feeling good. He already knew that despite Gryffindor’s excitement that he was the fourth member of the Triwizard Tournament the rest of the school would not be so happy. It would be second year all over again. Harry shifted sharply then almost screamed again, this time not in anger. He’d forgotten for a moment that his back was still healing. He may have been in school for two months but Vernon’s belt had cut quite deep and at least two of the wounds on his back were still open under the scabs, new skin struggling to grow over the wounds to heal it. 

It was a good thing that the Hogwarts uniforms required black robes, else he would not have been quite so easily able to hide when the scabs occasionally reopened and bled into the fabric on his back. He’d more than once had to go under the warm shower water still clothed in Dudley’s shirt in order to remove the fabric from his back without ripping the scabs that had stuck to the cloth. Anger gone, Harry began to sob, unable to hold back the trainwreck of other emotions that had been walled behind the fury he’d just released. As his sobs subsided and he fell silent, though warm tears still rolled down his face he began to wonder if dying would be so bad? He could escape this horrendous life, and be with his parents. He snivelled and wondered if they would still love him despite his clear weakness.

_“They would,”_ a voice said in his head. Harry twisted and sat up quickly, breath hissing as he definitely reopened the wounds on his back. His wrist twinged a little as he put pressure on it, but he ignored it as he had been doing since it had been broken back in July. 

“Who’s there? Why are you in my head?” Harry whispered despite the silencing charm. Perhaps he was going nuts, maybe he had truly lost it. 

_“You aren’t crazy, and i’m right here,”_ the voice said as suddenly a creamy slightly pink creature appeared on his pillow. 

“Bloody hell, I’m seeing things,” Harry said a little louder than he’d been speaking before. 

_“You aren’t, I’m real,”_ the creature giggled. _  
“You seemed sad, I didn’t like it.”_

“I have good reason,” Harry responded. The little creature seemed to concentrate on Harry, the glow that surrounded it seemed shadowed for a second as Harry felt a slightly warm pressure in his head. It only lasted a second before he was able to blink and shake it away. 

_“I’m sorry,”_ the little creature said. _“Maybe I can help?”_ Harry snorted. 

“I don’t know what you are but I doubt it, there is nowhere in the world I could go to escape this,” Harry sighed. The creature brightened and Harry got the feeling it was smiling. 

_“Do you want to stay in this world?”_ It questioned. Harry’s eyes widened.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked. 

_“I could bring you elsewhere,”_ the creature said. _“To my world. But, I don’t think I could bring you back. I’m not supposed to be here. But maybe you’ll be able to go back if you want to, you called me here somehow after all,”_ the creature said. 

“You could bring me to a different world?” Harry asked incredulously. 

_“I could,”_ the creature said and Harry could see in its glowing aura there was something else it was hesitating to say. 

“What is it?” Harry asked. 

_“There is power in you,”_ the creature said. _“It’s connected to something here, I wouldn’t be able to bring it with you, at least not all of it. Some of it is connected to you fully, but some is connected to a ball of light in you, I wouldn’t be able to bring it if I brought you over.”_

“My magic,” Harry whispered, internally debating. His magic made him different, but it also was the reason that so much had gone wrong in his life. Besides it sounded like not all of his magic would be gone, just the parts that allowed him to do spells. He’d be like a squib able to do runes and potions but not transfiguration or charms. Harry bit his lip, he was seriously debating going with the little creature. “Can I take anything with me?” Harry asked, thinking of Hedwig and his photo album. The creature’s glow darkened slightly. 

_“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I could carry anything but you, especially if it has any of the same power you have,”_ the creature said. Harry thought about it for a minute, the pictures in the album were definitely magical and Hedgwig was a post owl and had some magic in her that allowed her to find anyone. Harry swallowed as he debated his choices. He could stay here and compete, and probably die, he could stay and not compete and become a squib, probably have to return to the Dursley’s and be looked down upon even more, or he could go with the little creature, become a squib but maybe have a better life. It was an easy choice. 

“Can I write a quick note?” Harry asked. 

_“Of course,”_ the creature said. Harry quickly checked to see if anyone in the room was up, peeking behind his closed curtains. Seeing that everyone was asleep and hearing Ron’s snores now that his head was outside of the two way silencing charm, he crept out fully and opened his chest at the end of his bed. Pulling out a spare bit of parchment and a quill he wrote a note that he was leaving. He left the map and his broom to Ron as the boy was his friend despite his jealousy and asked that someone give his father’s cloak to Remus and his dog Snuffles along with his photo album. He asked that Hedwig be given to Hermione and asked that everything in his Gringotts account be given to the Weasely’s. Biting his lip Harry pulled out last year's Weasley sweater before closing the trunk and leaving the note with his wand on top of his trunk. Climbing back into the bed with the sweater and closing the curtains so that the silencing charm was fully in place Harry turned to the creature. 

“Is there any power on this?” Harry asked uncertain if Mrs. Weasley used magic in her knitting. 

_“No,”_ the creature answered. Harry smiled and pulled it on hissing at the stretch of his wounds. They had definitely opened earlier because the fabric of his shirt pulled and stuck to the once again dry scabs. Harry took a deep breath. 

“Okay,” Harry said, a few tears, leaking out of his eyes. He wiped them away, he wasn’t sure if they were happy or sad tears because of his conflicting feelings about what he was about to do. Perhaps they were a bit of both. “Okay, I’m ready,” Harry said. “Let’s go.” The creature glowed bright, and with a sudden shout of, 

_“Mew!!!!!!!”_ the creature glowed and the world spun. Harry felt a sudden pressure in his chest making it hard to breath, with a sharp twinge of pain and a pop the pressure disappeared but so did all of Harry’s energy and he passed out. 

_“What did you do?”_ a voice hissed. It was far deeper and with an edge of cruelty to it in comparison to the little creature’s. Harry blinked his eyes open confused. His back felt on fire, likely because he was laying full on it, rather than on his side or his belly as he normally did. With a groan he turned gently to his side, fighting off the tears from his pain. 

_“Brother, please,”_ the sweet voice of the creature was much more soothing than the other. _“Look into my mind brother, see what I saw.”_ Harry watched as a creature with the same general coloration as the little pink creature, only with a little more purple and a much larger and humanoid shape glared at the pink creature. Suddenly the glare softened. 

_“I see,”_ the bigger creature said. _“But what of the leech?”_

 _“That’s why I brought him here,”_ the little creature said. _“I thought maybe you could remove it for me?”_

 _“You have the power to remove it yourself, why do you ask me?”_ the bigger creature asked. 

_“I wish to give him a little of his childhood back, perhaps half of his lifespan?”_ the little creature said. _“He would be seven and a little bit, but if i do that I would need to recharge to pull the leech off or I could pull the leech off but then he’d have been in this world too long for me to change his physical body.”_ The bigger creature looked critically at Harry.

 _“I see,”_ the big creature said. _“Yes I can already see his physical form restabilizing, you realize that should you change his body and I pull the leech neither of us will have the power to heal him?”_

 _“Yes,”_ the little creature answered, aura spiking. _“We can leave him close to where he could get help.”_

 _“We should begin now, lest we lose more time,”_ the big creature said. Harry tried not to whimper as the bigger creature moved towards him and knelt at his head. The little creature popped and appeared floating just over the length of Harry’s body. 

_“We’ll not hurt you any more than you already have been,”_ the bigger creature said when Harry was unable to withhold the flinch as the creature’s three fingered hand touched Harry’s scar. _“You and I have more in common than you know. A warning child, do not tell any you come from another world. Though I have learned through my little sister that there are a few good humans in this world, I am pragmatic, and have experienced enough to know that there are terrible ones as well. Should they know of your origins then they would seek to know more, and I would wish their experiments, on no one. I will give you some of my knowledge of this world so you do not seem too strange, and I will erect a mind wall that no psychic can get through, lest you be found out that way. Trust little one, me and my sister know what we are doing.”_ Harry blinked up at the creature and suddenly a cool liquid seemed to invade his brain, soothing even in it’s invasion, he closed his eyes and slept. 

Harry woke on the edge of a copse of trees. He was on his stomach on the sparse grass so his back no longer seemed as pained as it had been the first time he woke. He closed his eyes as the light hit and groaned, feeling slightly sick at the information dump in his brain. He was in a world filled with pokemon, and somehow he knew the name and general looks of each one. It was a lot of knowledge, especially considering the two pokemon who helped him were Mew and Mewtwo, a legendary and a genetically modified clone of a legendary. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and proceeded to vomit, doing his best to avoid his hands. When he was finished he spit trying to rid himself of the taste and wiped his mouth with his arm. The breeze was cool and fresh smelling briny and clean felt good against his slightly feverish skin. Harry knew that the events and constant reopening of his wounds had likely given him an infection and wondered if the passive magic, that was all he had left would allow him to overcome the infection or if it had been his active magic that had helped him do so in the past. Harry looked towards where the breeze was coming from. There was clearly a cliff forming the coastline of the land, Kanto, he was now on. He wasn’t entirely sure where in Kanto he was but as he stood and looked out over the sea he could see a rather large looking island with a mountain, or rather a volcano according to the map in his head courtesy of Mewtwo. 

Given that the island, Cinnabar, was almost directly south and little to the east, Pallet Town and civilization was to his north, past the trees. He wasn’t sure exactly how far, he didn’t have a map scale and Mewtwo and Mew teleported everywhere and weren’t likely to be the best judges of distance, but nonetheless he began walking into the trees carefully watching where he stepped so that he didn’t piss off the residents of the forest while he was so clearly unable to defend himself. He wasn’t sure what he’d do once he got to Pallet Town, but his body was only seven, if what Mew had said she was going to do was correct. He certainly felt smaller, the clothes he wore looking and feeling even more oversized. At least one person would take pitly on the clearly homeless child right? Hopefully.

He was ten minutes into his walk when he heard a growl, scuffle and a sharp yelp. Harry ducked and hid behind the nearest tree only peeking out slightly. He saw a tiger striped, but wolf bodied pokemon, an Arcanine surrounded by several smaller similarly colored pokemon, clearly Growlithes and one cowering gold and cream colored Growlithe that was clearly much smaller than the others. 

_“Runt,”_ Harry could clearly hear the Arcanine hiss. The voice was female and the little gold Growlithe curled in on itself more. _“Come little ones, we leave,”_ the female voice said and the other Growlithes hurried to follow as she turned and slowly loped through the trees heading west. The little gold one lay curled up, whimpering on the forest floor where it had been thrown in the scuffle. Harry crept forward slowly. The Growlithe’s head came up and the pokemon growled, at Harry.

 _“I bite, flee,”_ the pokemon said underneath the growl. 

“It’s okay,” Harry said softly seeing the blood on the little Growlithe’s side where the claws of the Arcanine had obviously cut through the fur. “I won’t hurt you, promise. There is a town near here, they can help. I’m going there too,” Harry continued staying low and getting on his hands and knees. “Maybe you can let me take you there so they can heal you?” Harry asked, still soft. Growlithe growled again. 

_“I bite!”_ Harry stopped and shifted his body to sit legs crossed. 

“I’ll sit here and let you decide,” Harry said quietly. The Growlithe seemed surprised and stayed where it was glaring at Harry trying to intimidate the human boy. It couldn’t do so for long before the poor creature began to shiver as pain overcame fear and aggression. Slowly the little creature nosed forward towards where Harry sat limping, it’s back leg almost useless with the injury that curved down it’s flank and leg. 

“It’s okay,” Harry whispered soothingly. The little creature whimpered and before it could make it all the way to Harry its front paw gave out, and it gave a pained cry as it’s body hit the ground. Harry gasped lightly. 

“Can I come to you?” Harry asked the creature for permission. It whimpered out a small 

_“Yes,”_ as it shook its head. Harry made sure to move slowly and stay low as he crawled to the creature. Getting close Harry could see not only the injury, clearly made by a large claw swipe as well as just how underfed the poor pokemon was, it’s ribs showing clear through it’s cream gold and bloody fur.

“I’m going to pick you up now,” Harry whispered. “I’ll try to be gentle.” The little creature just whimpered. Harry removed his Weasley jumper hissing in pain at the stretch and heat of his own wounds. Carefully Harry used the clothing to wrap Growlithe and pick it up. It fit easily in his arms, and despite the fact that due to Mewtwo’s knowledge dump the average Growlithe pup was at least twenty pounds only a week after birth, the pup couldn’t have been more than ten. The oddly colored pokemon truly had been the runt of his little litter but that was no reason for him to die. 

Taking care not to jostle the whimpering pup that had put it’s trust in Harry, the dark haired green eyed boy made his way as quickly as he could towards the direction he believed Pallet town to be in. It was another fifteen minute walk before he cleared the trees. Pallet Town was directly ahead and a little to the east. 

“Almost there,” Harry whispered as he adjusted his route. It took another five minutes for Harry to reach the first house. The town wasn’t very big, more of a village than a town with only three streets of houses, a large building with a glass ceiling, and a street that looked like it was filled with shops and stores getting ready to close as the sun began to descend. Harry was unsure where to go. Mewtwo’s knowledge on the locations of Kanto was limited to where they were physically located, not what was within the location themselves. A kind looking woman passed by Harry carrying a basket of what looked to be groceries. 

“Excuse me,” Harry called to her. The woman looked up in surprise and saw Harry. “I have a hurt pokemon, can you tell me where to go?” 

“The Poke Lab is closer than the Poke Center, that’s on the other side of town, if it's really hurt, go to the big building,” the woman said. 

“Thank-you,” Harry said before hurrying off, not noticing that the woman was watching him go. She pulled out a phone and shot off a quick email to her father in law letting him know that a young boy she’d never seen in town before was bringing in an injured pokemon. 

Harry used his body to push open the door to the lab building before calling out when he saw everyone inside working and no one even glancing in his direction.

“Excuse me? Can someone help? I found a pokemon and he’s hurt really bad,” Harry said. Everyone looked up at him and two people in lab coats hurried to take the wrapped pokemon from Harry, doing their best not to jostle it all that much as they unwrapped it to look at it’s wounds. “It’s mom called it a runt and swiped it,” Harry said, wringing his hands a little. “I saw when I was behind a tree. She left it behind.” 

“A baby pokemon?” one of the lab techs said. 

“It certainly looks like it,” said another.

“Different coloring too, do you think it’s color will change as it grows?” a different one asked.

“Not a clue, we’ve never seen a baby pokemon before, this is unprecedented, the information we can learn,” said the first.

Two more hurried to shave away the fur around the wounds, while another used water to wash as much of the wound as it could. Gently they patted the wound dry before spraying it with some kind of liquid that caused the poor Growlithe to yelp and the wound to fizzle white, like hydrogen peroxide always did when Harry cleansed his wounds in the past. Harry wrung his hands as the potion was gently wiped away and one of the lab techs began stitching the wound up. A grey haired man suddenly exited from what looked to be a closed off portion of the lab.

“What do we have?” The man asked with obvious authority. 

“A young Growlithe, a baby Growlithe,” one of the techs answered. 

“A baby?” the man asked incredulously, pushing through to see. “Amazing, perhaps by studying the growth we can figure out how pokemon are born. It would be a breakthrough of research. I was told a young man brought the pokemon in?” one of the lab tech’s pointed to Harry who was standing only a few feet away still wringing his hands.

“Is he going to be okay?” Harry asked. “I promised him he’d be okay.” 

“He’s in good hands,” the man said as he looked Harry up and down. Harry didn’t really notice, caught up in watching as the lab techs wrapped bandages around the stitched wounds and put a cone round the pups head. 

“May I ask your name?” the man who seemed to be in charge.

“Uh, It’s Harry,” Harry answered, switching more fully to the man. 

“Alright Harry,” the man crouched down showing that despite his apparent age he was still rather mobile. “Now I can see that the baby Growlithe isn’t the only one that’s injured.” The man nodded towards Harry’s wrist which was clearly purple. Harry hadn’t even noticed. He’d probably refractured it without realizing given that it hadn’t been fully healed before his trip here. Harry couldn’t help it when he let the oversized sleeves of Dudley’s shirt fall over his wrist and put his arms behind his back where they couldn’t be seen. He didn’t even give an excuse like he’d learned to when Ron or Hermione asked about an injury. It was like he’d reverted to his, well his seven year old self. Perhaps Mew had changed more than just his physical body but perhaps a bit of his mentality as well?

“It’s alright, you aren’t in trouble,I just need to look at that wrist. It looked like it might have been broken and probably hurts a lot, please Harry?” the man asked. Harry looked down at his feet before looking back at the man and nodding. The man smiled softly. “Alright Harry. You see where they’re bringing the Growlithe?” Harry looked over at the lab tech who was putting the Growlithe gently into some kind of machine which seemed to be scanning him for any internal injuries. Harry nodded. “Well we have one for bigger pokemon, it’s big enough for humans too. I’ll be able to see exactly what’s going on with that wrist, will you let me see?” Harry swallowed heavily as he looked at the scanned image of the Growlithe. It looked quite comprehensive. If Harry allowed himself to be scanned it would show everything. Taking a deep breath Harry nodded. Perhaps it would be best if he allowed it to happen, if he quit trying to hide. He was in a new place now, it wasn’t like they could actually send him back. Gently the man led him towards a large machine that looked like the giant version of what the little Growlithe had been put in. Harry flinched when the man set his hand on his back trying to steady him as he climbed up. Harry didn’t notice that one of the lab techs had at the man’s look left the room dialing into his phone. Nor did he know that when his wounds had reopened and blood had seeped through the fabric showing starkly on the grey and very visible when anyone looked at his back. 

Harry sat gently in the machine as the man soothed him and began starting up the machine. Harry did his best not to move as the machine scanned him, and couldn’t bring himself to look at the image of his body and it’s injuries that was being put on the screen. One of the lab techs gasped and the man gestured for him to leave, doing his best to keep a neutral face. Harry’s lip was trembling when the machine was done. 

“Alright Harry,” the man said. “Now I can see there are a lot of things we’re going to have to fix. It’s going to be alright.”

“Okay sir,” Harry said quietly. 

“You can call me Samuel, Harry,” Samuel said. “I’m Samuel Oak, I’m the Professor here. Now I’m alright at human first aid but do you see over there?” Samuel pointed at one of the female aids. One with pretty brown hair pulled up into a tight ponytail waved. “That’s Dr. Amanda Burns, she’s our medical doctor, she’s going to be the one to help you, but if you want I can stay with you the entire time?” Harry nodded. 

“Alright then Harry,” Amanda said coming close, “If you wanna hop down from there we’ll go to one of the private rooms and start by getting you out of that shirt okay.” Harry nodded again and got off the scanner. 

Three and a half hours later, after his back was cleaned, along with the open wound on his forehead, where his scar had reopened, likely when Mewtwo had removed whatever leech Mew had asked him too, as he’d touched him there, his wrist had been readjusted and then tightly wrapped and Professor Oak helped sponge bath him since his back and wrist couldn’t get wet. Dr. Amanda had helped Professor Oak in cleaning Harry’s hair, with the creative use of a tub generally used for bathing pokemon. Harry was now asleep on a medical gurney warm and healing, pumped full of antibiotics and pain medication.

Professor Oak and Dr. Amanda had both attempted multiple times to get more information out of Harry, about his last name, his family, or even where he was from. Harry simply clamped up, going mute in refusal to answer. Both of them took it as the boy not wanting to give any information that may have him being sent back to his abusers, rather than Harry not wanting to talk about it or have to remember lies. Two officers were talking with the Professor and doctor now, giving what information they had. 

“How long do you think his recovery will be?” asked one of the officers who was making notes on a pad. 

“Physically,” Amanda said. “As long as the wounds on his back don’t get anymore infected, then two three days, before he can start moving around, three weeks before his back is completely healed another week for his wrist. Mentally, well that’s a whole other story.”

“I’ll alert the orphanage in Saffron and they can get in contact to organize his transport,” said the other officer. 

“You think an orphanage is the best place for him?” asked Professor Oak. 

“No, but there is little choice,” said the officer. 

“What if I took him in?” the Professor asked. “I’ve gone through the fostering program. I took it in an effort to understand how to take care of abandoned, orphaned or abused pokemon, but I’ve gone through the program. I could give him one on one care, and being in a small town would likely be better than a big city.” The officers looked at one another. 

“We don’t have the authority to say you can,” one of the officers said, “But I do have a sister who works in child services,” he continued, taking out his business card and reaching for his partner's pen. Writing the number down he passed it to the pokemon Professor. “Call her, they’ll have the correct paperwork and authority to get everything started. In the meantime, he tells you anything else about the person or people who did this to him you let us know.” 

“Of course, thank you officers,” Samuel said. 

Less than a week later, League Pokemon Professor Dr. Samuel Oak Ph.D was the foster father of one Harry Oak, the boy having agreed to use the man’s last name as he wouldn’t give up his own. One of the guest rooms in the Professor’s small house was converted into Harry’s room and the boy had happily picked out the paint color, a soft lavender and the bed, a circular bed with an overhang top meant to look like a purple luxury pokeball closed three quarters of the way. Harry spent much of his time at the lab with Professor Oak, either reading the few textbooks that had been published about pokemon, helping the aides feed the pokemon being studied, or napping on Professor Oak’s couch, the little Growlithe, whom Harry had nicknamed Goldfyre or Fyre for short, curling up beside him or in his lap, or following him around like a lost puppy.

Goldfyre, as long as Harry was there allowed himself to be poked and prodded as the professors ran tests trying to understand both how baby pokemon came into the world, as well as the strange colors pokemon occasionally popped up with, known as Shiny coloring, that before Harry telling them, that the mother and the six other baby Growlithes were all orange black and white rather than the gold and cream that Goldfyre sported, believed was a genetic trait. While it still could be a recessive gene it was unlikely that in seven other Growlithes sharing genes there wasn’t another Shiny. This gave more likelihood to a random genetic mutation that popped up without pattern. Without understanding exactly how baby pokemon came into the world however there was little more research that could be done. Especially without any other baby pokemon. It was apparently exceedingly rare for a baby pokemon to be seen as the parents seemed to hide them until they were adolescents. The most often seen baby pokemon were bug pokemon, and it was illegal to professionally capture baby pokemon, or a known mother pokemon. Only League registered Ranger’s, Breeders, or Scientists were given legal right to raise or foster orphaned baby pokemon, unless there were extenuating circumstances, or if a League registered Ranger, Breeder, or Scientist, arranged for a trainer to foster the orphaned baby. It happened so rarely and was highly regulated so that little to no chance of a black market on baby pokemon.

Harry didn’t talk about his past and resisted answering all questions about it, but more than once, Samuel Oak had crawled into Harry’s bed to hold him as he either cried, missing home or tried to go back to sleep after a nightmare. Eventually Harry was able to convince Professor Oak to let Goldfyre come home with them to stay with Harry. Even though Goldfyre couldn’t yet be professionally caught for another seven months and Harry was still just under two and a half years away from being allowed to legally own a pokemon, it was all but a forgone conclusion that Goldfyre was Harry’s. Harry had gotten a bit more used to being a member of the Oak family, although he didn’t get along with young Gary Oak who was two and a half and quite spoilt. Harry knew it was irrational to be jealous of a baby but seeing just how much Gary’s parent’s doted on the baby he just couldn’t help it. Harry wouldn’t give up having Samuel Oak as a father for anything though. Harry had taken to calling Samuel, Pa about seven months ago, two months after the man had officially become his foster father. 

“Harry can you double check that the new Alakazam has settled in when you do the feeding? Be careful though. He’s newly league retired and although his documents mark him as non-aggressive around pokemon and humans in non-battle situations but I don’t want you to get hurt.” Oak said.

“Course Pa,” Harry answered, lifting another bag of pokefood into the wheelbarrow. Harry had not realized that not everyone could understand pokemon, and had inadvertently revealed the ability to the Professor. The professor had warned Harry to keep the ability quiet and to pretend he simply had an affinity for pokemon if anyone asked. Professor Oak even told Harry to keep the ability quiet from the League who while highly regulated often forgot that people were people in light of the big picture of pokemon and may exploit him not realizing the harm they’d do to him. Still the ability allowed Harry to more easily check on the pokemon in the labs care. 

“Dinner!” Harry called as he entered the biodome that took up over half of the lab building. Harry cut open the bags of pokefood with a ceramic knife before pouring it into one of the seven troughs, repeating the process with a new bag until all of the troughs were filled. Pokemon of all types headed to the troughs to get their fill. He put the empty bags back into the wheelbarrow bringing it to the entrance before returning to the troughs. Harry waited to see if the Alakazam would turn up for feeding before calling to Goldfyre. 

“Come on bud, you can eat when we get home, we have Alakazam to find,” Harry called. Goldfyre yipped and hopped down from where he’d been getting food to follow at Harry’s footsteps. Harry found the large bearded pokemon meditating underneath, ironically a large oak tree. 

“Mr. Alakazam?” Harry called softly as to not startle the older pokemon. 

“Yes child?” the Alakazam asked. Harry had learned that psychic pokemon could audibly speak human languages using their minds unlike other pokemon. 

“It’s dinner time, didn’t you hear me call?” Harry asked. 

“I heard you child,” the Alakazam said, his voice even and centering. “I am simply taking time to ruminate on my retirement, in the momentary quietude.” 

“You have a very big vocabulary,” Harry commented sitting down in the shade of the oak tree. Most of the pokemon in the lab knew a few words that they would say, but they certainly couldn’t hold conversation, despite their near constant human interaction. “Would you mind if I joined you in the quiet?” He asked as Goldfyre climbed into and settled in his lap. 

“I have experienced many years with my trainer, and both my mother and father had immense vocabularies,” Alakazam responded. “I do not disapprove of you joining me in contemplating in solitude, or rather tranquility since I am no longer alone in the silence.” Harry and Alakazam sat in silence for a few minutes, Harry fidgeting slightly. Harry felt the Alakazam smiling more than he saw anything on the pokemon’s face. 

“Speak child, what is ricocheting in that young mind of yours?” the pokemon asked. 

“You said that your mom and dad had big vocabularies but what does that have to do with you having a big one? Did they teach you?” Harry asked. The pokemon seemed to contemplate something for a moment before speaking. 

“Yes and no,” the pokemon answered. “All psychic pokemon have memory gained from their parents, it is why it is so easy for us to speak to you humans, and why we are among the most intelligent of pokekind. Unlike humans and other pokemon we do not have to learn everything when we are born, we are born with portions of knowledge that our parents learned.” 

“If all psychic pokemon have memories from their parents, do you remember everything about the world's history?” Harry asked. Alakazam leaned back against the tree. 

“Not exactly,” the pokemon said. “It’s never been clear even to us psychic types, despite everything, just what decides the memories we inherit. Language tends to be the most common, but among my family’s line it is even more apparent. Unlike some psychic pokemon who inherit small amounts of language, my line inherits fully established dialects and languages, pokemon and human.” 

“There are different pokemon languages?” Harry asked. 

“Dialects yes,” the pokemon answered. “Most pokemon stick to our common shared shared dialect, though many types have what you would refer to as accents, but amongst the legendary pokemon there is a language only they know fully, though some pokemon, mostly psychics, know a few words here and there.”

“I’ve read all of Pa’s textbooks, nothing in them even mentions pokemon memories being passed down amongst psychic types, or anything about pokemon languages and dialects. 

“Perhaps that’s because no one has ever asked,” Alakazam answered, standing. Harry stood with him, gently setting Goldfyre on the ground. 

“Would you let my Pa record what you know?” Harry asked. 

“If he asks the questions, I will give him the answer’s,” Alakazam answered. 

“Thanks Alakazam, bye,” Harry said as he and Goldfyre jogged off towards the entrance of the biodome where it connected to the rest of the lab while Alakazam headed towards the troughs. 

Harry’s curious questions turned into a discovery of epic proportions that started a domino effect. Professor Oak refused to take all the credit for the discovery, and Harry’s name went on the research paper on the subject, drawing the various League’s attentions, and sent the Kanto League into a debate. At the end of the debate, Harry was offered a position as an independent League registered pokemon researcher, with a small wage, and bonus’s for any discoveries. After talking with his Pa and discussing the responsibilities that would come, Harry decided to take on the job. 

As a registered League researcher Harry gained quite a few perks. He was able to own pokemon two and a half years early as an official trainer, he could should he wish to, register for the League Challenge, and he no longer had a carry limit for the amount of pokemon he could have with him at any given time. He did however have to keep a careful record of everything he researched, and taking his age into account, he needed to log at least eight hours of research time a week. His wage was minimal, only a hundred pokedollars a week, with bonuses for his discoveries. He was also able to access grant funds should he need them, after he went through the proper channels of course. To begin with Harry helped with his Pa’s research, logging things for him and other menial duties while learning the ins and outs of professional pokemon research. Harry and Goldfyre, who after his Pa’s gift of a single pokeball and a pokedex, were now officially pokemon and trainer, also participated as part of his Pa’s studies. Specifically his Pa’s research into pokemon and human relationships. 

Harry celebrated his eighth birthday with his Pa and his Pa’s family and was gifted with his own computer in his Pa’s lab, where he could log his notes, rather than using a notebook and then uploading them via his Pa’s. Harry was ecstatic, swiftly pushing himself to learn the ins and outs of the piece of Devon Company equipment. With the help of Alakazam, so that Harry didn’t have to reveal his ability to the League, Harry questioned the other pokemon about any genetic memories, as they named the phenomenon. With this Harry was credited with another discovery. Inherited abilities, though it had been documented in form before, that some pokemon seemed to have abilities that others of their kind didn’t. It was believed that their formative years were the cause, and since so little was known about baby pokemon it was an accepted explanation, until Harry discovered otherwise of course. By the age of ten Harry had become credited in several of Professor Oak’s papers as well as a few of the laboratory aide’s research papers as well, and had written out a project of his own he wanted to research. Now all he had to do was present it to his Pa and then the League, who would either approve and provide the funding or send him back to the drawing board. 

“Pa?” Harry called as he walked into the pokemon lab, file folder of his proposal under his arm. The folder was just the physical copy of his proposal, the electronic file was in the harddrive of his computer tower, ready to be sent to the League should his Pa, say it was ready. 

“Over here Harry,” his father called from behind the one othe partitions separating the lab aide cubicles.

“Hey Pa,” Harry said as he approached. Professor Oak was leaning over one of his aides looking at the information on the other man’s screen. 

“One moment Harry,” Oak said before turning his attention to the aide. “Log this in an official capacity and send me an email link.” With a pat on the aide’s shoulder the professor turned to his son. “What do you need bud?” Oak asked. 

“I finished it,” Harry said, taking a deep breath, “Can you look it over?”

“Of course, let’s go to my office son,” Oak said. Harry nodded and followed as his father led the way. Harry sat in the chair in front of his father’s desk setting the binder on the desktop. Goldfyre, too large to sit in his trainer’s lap curled up at Harry’s feet. 

“Before I take a look, tell me what it is you finally decided on for your project, you were awfully secretive,” Oak said folding his hands together. Harry gave a nod, swallowed and gathered his thoughts before taking a deep breath. 

“Alright,” Harry began. “I’ve been making a note of what research on pokemon has been done and noticed that despite a wide range of topics that have been looked into or are being looked into and I noticed a glaring hole; anatomy and physiology. The scanner that you used on me and Goldfyre when we first met is the extent of anatomy research into pokemon, and it really only reveals wounds that affect the outside of the body, open wounds, and x-rays to reveal broken bones. And what little physiology knowledge that we have is patchy and usually found by accident or as a result of another research angle rather than a true want to know.” 

“And how have you worked around the legalities?” his father asked. “Experimentation on pokemon is illegal, that includes non-essential surgery.”

“Experimentation and non-essential surgery is illegal on live pokemon,” Harry answered. “I propose, a temporary lab be set up in Lavender Town, trainers be encouraged to donate their pokemon’s deceased bodies to science before burial, and exploratory autopsies be performed and recorded. Not only could this lead to discoveries on the whys and hows of pokemon, but it could also help in understanding how to heal pokemon.” Oak sat back in his chair for a minute, thoughtful, before picking up the binder and beginning a read through of the official proposal and grant request. Harry did his best not to fidget for the next half hour it took for his father to read through. Oak set the binder down, closing it and was silent for a minute, causing Harry to press his sweaty palms onto his knees nervously.

“I’m so very proud of you,” Oak said suddenly and Harry’s heart soared. He didn’t even notice his father rounding the table until he was in the man’s arms clutching tightly into the hug. “Truly I am,” Oak said into his hair, before letting Harry go and sitting on the couch rather than the intimidating chair behind the desk this time. “I do have a few questions.” 

“Okay,” Harry said, nodding preparing himself to answer them. 

“You asked for an aide for this project but specified for the aide not to come from this lab, can I ask why?” Oak asked. “Would it not be better to work with someone who’s known you for a few years?”

“In a sense yes, but in this case no,” Harry answered with a sigh, drawing his legs up in the chair to sit cross legged. “This is supposed to be my project which means I’ll be solely in charge of whomever they send as my aide. Everyone here has known me since I was even younger than I am now, and I’m still only a child, even if ten is the age most go off on their pokemon adventures. If I got an aide that had been based here it may be grating for them to follow my orders, especially if they still see me as a child. An aid from another lab though? The rest of the scientific community, though they know my age have only seen me via my contributions and would be less likely to question or balk under my authority.” Oak was nodding in understanding. 

“I understand,” his father said. Taking a deep breath the man sighed. “You’ve grown up so much, and now you’re about to lead your first research project, I feel like crying and shouting in happiness and sadness at the same time. I have no doubt that the League will grant you the funding for this project. You’ve detailed exactly how much you’ll need and have done everything you can to prove just how beneficial your findings can be, and have ensured that the funds you do need are minimal as well. I am very proud.” Harry swallowed. 

“Thanks Dad,” Harry whispered through the lump in his throat. His father’s eyes widened, though Harry had called him Pa, he’d never called him Dad before. Professor Oak rose to his feet and in the same movement pulled Harry off of his chair and into a bear hug that Harry returned as hard as he could pushing his head into his father’s chest trying not to cry. 

“I have something to ask you Harry,” Oak said, finally letting go of Harry. Harry wiped at his eyes, rubbing away the tears that hadn’t quite fallen. His father pulled something off of the desk, a thin folder. Oak knelt down so he was on level with Harry and opened the folder. “I already signed, but this is your choice, don’t feel any pressure, if you want, nothing will change. But I love you and I’d really like to make it official.” Harry looked at the papers and the tears he’d just wiped away sprung to his eyes again. Though he couldn’t speak, Harry simply nodded yes, clutching at his father and the papers that his father had signed to officially adopt him with equal measure. Not much more was done that day other than a celebratory dinner at Harry’s now official older brother’s home with the rest of the Oak family. A proper welcome to officially becoming a member of the family. 

Less than a week later there was another cause for celebration, and was punctuated by Harry’s sudden shout that surprised everyone in the office section of the labs.

“Yes! Yes!” Harry shouted, running out of his little cubicle. “Dad! Dad! I got it! They approved it all!” Professor Oak exited his office, which had been open and met Harry halfway as he raced down the carpeted room. The man swung the celebrating boy up into his arms and danced a happy dance. Though Harry was intelligent and employed by the league he was still a child and it was apparent in moments like these, especially in how young he seemed to keep Professor Oak. 

“I told you they would,” his father said, setting Harry back down. “When do they expect you to leave?” 

“I have two weeks,” Harry said. “They approved my equipment requests and are going to have it all set up the day before my scheduled arrival. My request for an aide was also approved. A student completing his doctorate, and apparently on the list of possible candidates to take over the Johto Pokemon Lab, one Mervin Elm. I think I read one of his papers. He’s researching pokemon breeding and birthing. I’d guess that understanding the anatomy and physiology would be a good help to his research.” 

“Yes, I suppose it would. With Professor Maple retiring this year, Johto will need a new professor, in charge of the lab,” his father said, scratching his chin. “You’ll need to bring your external hard drive, and we’ll have to pack your bags. That reminds me, wait here.” Harry waited as his father rushed into his office before returning with a box, and handed it to Harry. “I purchased it when you showed me your project application. I wanted to be able to stay in contact with you. My number is already programmed in, that’s why the box isn’t sealed anymore.” 

“Thank-you Dad,” Harry said, giving the man a quick hug before digging the Silph phone out of the box and taking in the design. It was a flip phone with an easy to navigate menu. Two weeks later found Harry hugging his father, promising to call regularly. His father was lending him one of his own pokemon, a Pidgeot that was well versed in delivery flight, in order to quickly get to Lavender Town, it would also provide Harry an easy way to visit home should he wish too. 

Unwrapping his arms from his father, Harry picked up his bag and pulled Goldfyre’s pokeball from his waist. 

“Alright boy, you’ll have to be in your ball for the trip,” Harry said, holding the ball out about waist height. Goldfyre nodded and leapt up on back legs to push his nose against the button on the front of the pokeball. A moment later he was inside the ball which Harry put in the side pocket of his duffle before swinging it onto his shoulder. Harry took a deep breath and realized the pokemon he was borrowing from his father. 

“Hey Otto,” Harry said, petting the bird pokemon’s head. “I need to go to Lavender Town, if you’d be willing to take me?” Harry asked. The bird bobbed his head and answered with a 

_“We fly!”_ Harry smiled and climbed onto the pokemon’s back, careful not to hurt his wings as he settled into the custom made saddle. 

“Bye Dad!” Harry shouted as Otto lifted into the air.

“Call me when you get there,” Professor Oak shouted back, and then Harry was too high in the air to hear anything else. Harry yipped in joy as Otto banked turning to fly east and slightly to the north. He had missed the feeling of flying, and had only flown a few times before, completing deliveries on occasion for the lab, but generally it was too Celadon City or occasionally Fuchsia City, both of them only half a day trip there and back on Otto’s back, where as it would be over half a day to Lavender Town. Thankfully Harry had packed himself a lunch. He was just passing over what was likely Vermillion City when Harry pulled his sandwich out of the front pouch of his duffel. He’d left Pallet Town shortly after ten am, so it was probably shortly after one o’clock, he was just over halfway there. 

Harry’s legs were beginning to feel sore when he felt Otto begin to descend. In the distance he could see a tower surrounded by purplish clouds. Otto circled the town twice before gracefully landing. Gingerly Harry slid off the birds back. They both took a moment to take in their surroundings. Harry offered the bird a little bit of pokefood he had packed along with some water before removing the saddle and using its built in nano-technology feature to shrink it before putting Otto back in his pokeball, and packing it into the same pocket that held Goldfyre’s so that the bird could rest. The saddle went into his own pocket so that Harry could pull it out and clean it later. Harry pulled Goldfyre’s ball out and released the loyal pokemon. Fyre immediately pushed against Harry’s leg prompting Harry to pet him. 

“Alright off we go, towards the tower,” Harry said. “My lab is supposed to be set up on the east side of it, between the cliffside and the tower itself.” Goldfyre trotted loyally beside Harry as the boy made his way through the town, that was quite a bit larger than Pallet Town. Finding his way was easy as the Pokemon Tower was one of two towers in the town. The other was on the southern side and was the Kanto Radio Tower, it’s KRT logo clear on it’s side. The walk across the town took a little under ten minutes at a moderate speed. Just as he’d been told the lab tent was set up in between the camp, the red and white pokeball with the three blue atoms in orbit symbol of pokemon scientists around it. Harry stopped and pulled out his phone. A quick push of the buttons and Harry held the phone up to his ear as he stared at the tent.

“Professor Oak speaking,” his father answered the phone professionally, probably not even having looked at the caller ID before he’d answered. 

“Dad,” Harry said quietly. “I’m in Lavender. I’m outside the tent, I’m nervous.”

“Of course you are son,” Oak said. “I was nervous about my first official project too. You can do it.” 

“Thank-you Dad,” Harry said, breathing in deeply.

“You’re welcome, how was the flight?” Oak asked. 

“Long, but uneventful,” Harry answered. “And you, what did you do today?” 

“Paperwork mostly, after all, my most efficient paperwork gopher is no longer here,” Oak said with a chuckle.

“I feel no pity,” Harry joked back. 

“Well you’d best get in there. Call me tomorrow?” Oak asked. 

“Of course Dad, love you,” Harry said.

“Love you too son,” Oak responded. “Have a good night.”

“Bye Dad,” Harry said. 

“Bye son,” Oak responded before they both hung up. Harry steeled himself and headed to the tent. Entering easily Harry took in the set up. It was arranged mostly as he’d designed. The large scanner he’d requested didn’t seem to be here, but as the request had been approved it was likely on it’s way, being delivered by land pokemon rather than by air. The personal areas of the tent were separated by solid white curtain partitions, and Harry made his way to the open one and set his bag down. Goldfyre leapt up onto the bed and made himself comfortable as Harry began to unpack. 

“Oh hello!” a voice behind Harry said. Harry turned to see a man, likely in his late teens, perhaps early twenties. He was stick thin and wore khaki pants and an open dress shirt, a graphic t-shirt underneath. He was carrying several containers of what smelled like food, specifically chinese food, or rather Johtoen food. Harry quickly realized that this was likely Mervin Elm. 

“Hello, Harry Oak, Mervin Elm I presume?” Harry said, exiting his personal area. 

“Yes,” Mervin answered, setting the take out containers onto one of the metal tables, and extending his hand to shake. Harry shook it. “Pleasure to meet you,” Elm said.

“Likewise,” Harry answered. 

“Do you like Johtoen food?” Elm asked. “I wanted to see what my favorite dishes taste like here. I have plenty enough if you’d like to share.” 

“I’d like that,” Harry said. “I’d just like to feed Goldfyre first, that’s him over there, and after dinner I’d like to do a proper walk through of the lab.” 

“Of course,” Elm said. “I did a walkthrough when I arrived this morning to familiarize myself, the only thing we seem to be missing is the large scanner, I was told by the League builders that it was scheduled to arrive early tomorrow morning, and will be installed by someone certified to do so.” Harry nodded and pointed to Goldfyre who had started softly snoring where he’d fallen asleep on Harry’s bed. 

“That’s Goldfyre, he’s friendly, he prefers to be outside of his pokeball, so he’ll probably be around, he knows to stay out of our way though,” Harry said. “Can you show me where they stored the pokefood? I requested that they provide a months worth of pokefood and grocery supplies so that we could take the time to set up rather than shopping for food, groceries will be delivered every two weeks so if you have requests let me know.” 

“Smart, well there’s a little kitchenette and pantry round the back of where they set up our spaces, might be in there, didn’t go through the cupboards, mostly just checked out the lab equipment,” Elm answered. 

“Thanks,” Harry said. Both of them headed towards the kitchenette, Harry to find the pokefood, and Mervin to find some utensils. After Goldfyre and the two researchers were well fed, Harry began his walkthrough carrying a clipboard and a supply list he’d made for the project, while Elm began setting up his computer, connecting his own external harddrive to the League provided tower and monitor, as well as a small Silph Cam, for video calls. 

The front of the tent where one entered was an open professional space with two metal tables for general examinations, along with a metal desk with organizers, and two standing metal drawer cabinets. Opening up each drawer Harry began checking off items as he took stock, making sure that the supplies he had requested were all here. From the front he made his way past the clear divider curtains to take a look at the computer cubicles for both Harry and Mervin. Mervin was talking to what seemed to be his family, a young and rather pretty woman, and a two year old boy. 

“Harry, would you like to meet my wife and son?” Mervin asked, as Harry finished checking off the last things on the clipboard pertaining to their computer areas. 

“I would be delighted,” Harry answered. 

“Melony, Curtis, this is my co-worker and leader of this research station, Harry Oak,” Mervin said introducing Harry to his family. “Harry, my wife Melony and son Curtis, he’s four.”

“Hello,” Harry said politely with a wave. 

“My aren’t you young,” Melony said. “Suppose you’re like my husband then, driven by science and discovery.”

“I guess we’ll find out, I look forward to working with him though,” Harry said. “Forgive me but I have to get back to my walkthrough, I want to finish it tonight so we can get started tomorrow.”

“Of course, don’t let us keep you,” Melony politely said. “Just remember to take care of yourself as well. I know you scientists type all too well, pushing yourselves to the limit for your discoveries. Eating, sleeping and hygiene is necessary, remember that, you too husband.” Harry chuckled. 

“It is all too easy to get caught up in the excitement but I’m sure we’ll both be fine,” Harry said before giving a final wave to the woman and continuing on his way. 

The back of the lab tent after passing the kitchenette and sectioned off personal areas including a fully functional bathroom with a shower, was large and open with pristine equipment ready to use. Despite their clear immaculate features, Harry inspected each and everyone to ensure it was in perfect working order, before checking the one piece of equipment single handedly took up more space than the private area combined ; the walk in morgue, but rather than sealed freezer drawers, in morgues meant for humans, this one had a rack meant to hold pokeballs, as well two worktables, and an autopsy table, all pristine and ready to use. Finally Harry checked the last piece of equipment, the incinerator. It would be used to cremate the donated pokemon bodies after research was complete, before the ashes would be placed in the Pokemon Tower to be respectfully laid to rest. Completing the checklist but for the final scanner Harry made his way back to the computer cubicles after grabbing his own external harddrive that he had brought from home. 

Booting up the computer Harry began to make a log for the day’s events, describing the walkthrough and checklist, marking it with the date, and title of log one before saving it to his own harddrive and uploading it to the designated research folder the League had made for the project. With a yawn Harry decided it to take an early night to be well rested for the morning. 

The alarm on Harry’s watch, along with an annoyed Goldfyre’s grumbling, woke Harry up at an early five-thirty in the morning. Harry hit the button on his watch to turn off the alarm and rolled out of bed. Goldfyre rumbled and rolled into the warm spot Harry left behind before swiftly falling back into dreamland. Harry gathered clothing for the day along with his toiletry bag. He was carefully silent as he took a morning shower, refreshing and fully waking him. Elm was still asleep when Harry exited the shower, but Harry had let him know before going to bed the night before, that he was expecting to open the lab at seven, so the man would likely be up soon enough. Harry debated going out to get breakfast, before sighing and going into the pantry to make something. Their food budget was generous, especially considering the League would be delivering groceries bi-monthly, but eating out would quickly eat into it, not to mention just how unhealthy it could get, eating out too often.

Going through the fridge and pantry Harry realized that the League certainly hadn’t skimped. In addition to the food that originated from regular animals there were also ingredients that originated from pokemon, it was both the more expensive and exotic option, and even with Samuel Oak as Harry’s father, they rarely got a few of these ingredients more than once a month despite the man being well off. There was a carton of MooMoo milk, an import from Sinnoh, Sweet Syrup, a very sweet syrup harvested from the excretions of a gloom and refined several times leaving behind a golden syrup that smelled absolutely nothing like the original product and a highly regulated noxious purple liquid that was often distilled and mixed with fermented pecha berry to make an alcohol called Sweet Dreams, due to the fact that drinking to much could send a full grown man into a coma. Gloom nectar harvesting was a highly regulated process and black market operations were shut down swiftly causing one ounce of the final products, both Sweet Syrup and Sweet Dreams to be worth almost fifty pokedollars.

Harry decided to be a bit indulgent. Using the MooMoo milk when he made southern breakfast pancakes, known as Kalosian Biscuits, in this world, before cutting up some figy berry and pinap berry and reducing them with a bit of Sweet Syrup, to cut the spicy taste. Harry had plated up and poured himself a glass of sitrus berry juice when Elm blearily made his way into the kitchen, clearly following his nose. He was in plaid pants, and an over large band shirt clearly displaying the logo for the girl band Cleffa Fairys. He was wearing wire rimmed glasses with circular lenses, much like the glasses Harry used to wear. Now Harry had black frames with rectangular lenses, and his father had promised that they’d look into corrective surgery when Harry was older and had finished growing. Since the man hadn’t been wearing the glasses earlier he probably had contact lenses. 

“Smells good,” the man said, eyes barely open behind glasses. 

“I didn’t make coffee but there is sitrus juice,” Harry said. “Samuel Oak refused to allow Harry to drink coffee, not wanting Harry to get addicted to the somewhat unhealthy boost of caffeine to wake up, that the drink provided. Instead sitrus juice provided a healthy boost of waking fuel, much like orange juice. Elm mumbled what Harry assumed was a thanks and the man plated up. Cleaning up when he had finished his meal Harry left Elm at the kitchen table, and filled a large trencher full of pokefood for Goldfyre and Otto to share, bringing it to his room when he grabbed Otto’s pokeball and woke Goldfyre. Harry didn’t actually have to feed Otto, given that pokeballs put pokemon into a stasis but Harry didn’t like to leave pokemon in the ball too long, even if it had been proven that doing so did no lasting damage to a pokemon. Harry set up the trencher at the front of the lab tent that formed a sort of receiving area before letting Otto out and giving him a gentle pat on his head. Harry undid the inner ties of the tent entrance and pulled it back to let people know that the lab was now open. It was a little early, only six-thirty but it was likely that not many people would come through for a few more hours. 

Harry was right, at about seven thirty the large scanner arrived carried by two well built Electabuzz, and with it a man who introduced himself as Lt. Surge. The large man, with a severe crew cut, was quick to install the scanner and make sure the electronic connections were done correctly before leaving with a quick goodbye, seemingly not one for idle conversation, his pokemon following close behind. No one entered the tent until after lunch, but that didn’t mean that Mervin or Harry had been idle. The older man seemed to be working on the organization of his thesis paper, or at least the research that he’d gathered for it so far. As for Harry he spent his morning working on a project that had little to do with pokemon. He was building his own computer, only he was attempting to make it portable, so that he didn’t have to constantly connect and disconnect his external harddrive to new computers every time he went somewhere new for research. He knew from his old world that it was in fact possible, the results being called laptops, but he didn’t know exactly how it had been done. 

Harry found this world strange, in some areas it was well advanced beyond what even his world had been, in others not so much, like the nanotechnology of pokeballs, beside the contrasting slow dial up computer systems, beside cell phones. It truly was odd. Harry had spent his free time between helping his Dad in the lab studying and taking apart a pokedex, and an old computer tower and modem, and Harry was convinced he could create a prototype to sell to either Silph Co. or Devon Company, whichever would purchase it. Most of the small wage he’d been getting since he was seven and a half had gone into funding this invention. Harry was using his small soldering iron to connect a few more pieces, as he worked at one of the metal tables in the front, to keep an eye on the entrance while Elm worked further in the lab in his cubicle where had no line of sight to the entrance, when a young woman, with vibrant purple hair entered the lab cradling a great ball in her hands. 

“Hello,” Harry greeted the woman politely. Her eyes widened as she took in Harry’s age, despite that he was wearing a white lab coat, she dismissed him as a scientist. 

“Hi,” she said softly, “I was told that this was a lab?” 

“It is,” Harry confirmed. 

“Can I talk to one of the scientists?” she asked.

“My name is Harry Oak,” Harry said kindly, not holding her dismissal against her, he was only ten after all. “I’m the head scientist of this lab.”

“Oh,” she exclaimed in surprise. “I didn’t mean any offense.”

“I know,” Harry said as he moved away from the table he’d been working at to the desk. “What can I help you with?” He asked. 

“The League channel on tv mentioned donating our pokemon’s bodies to science here before their burial?” she asked rather than giving him an answer.

“Yes, we are asking for the public to donate their pokemon’s bodies, but the remains will be cremated rather than buried before being laid to rest,” Harry answered. “Are you looking to donate today?” The woman nodded, and Harry gestured for her to sit in the chair in front of the desk that Harry now sat behind. 

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Harry said with a soft smile. “I’m going to need to ask you to fill out a few forms for the donation, and then answer as many of my questions as you can, will that be alright?” Harry asked. The woman swallowed and nodded. 

“Yeah, I can do that,” she said. 

“Alright,” Harry said, passing her a pen and pulling out the forms that had been provided by the League to record and legalize the ownership transfer of the pokemon bodies. “This is the form. Please print your name on the last line before putting your signature beside it.” She took the pen and began to fill in the form with her name, and trainer number, as well as her pokemon’s registration ID, before signing over ownership of her pokemon to the lab. When she was finished Harry asked for the pokeball containing the body, as well as her trainer ID and looked over the form before pulling out a folder and labeling it with the pokemon’s registered number and name Subject One. Checking the form once more Harry stood up and moved over to the side of the tent where a machine that looked remarkably like a printer sat on a shelf. Harry punched in a code before putting the form through the machine. When it came out a texturized League seal sat in the box that asked for the recipient's signature, and Harry signed his name beneath it before using a different function of the machine to print a copy of her Trainer ID. He then turned and returned to the desk. 

“Alright,” Harry said, putting the form, and photocopy into the folder and pulling out a notepad. “It’s okay if you don’t know the answer’s to my questions, but I’d like to try and get as much information as I can. Let me know if you need to stop at any point.”

“Okay,” she said.

“Now you wrote that your pokemon was a Sandshrew, on the form is that correct?” Harry asked, noting down when the woman replied yes. “May I ask if you gave him a nickname? We can ensure his urn is labelled with it should you wish.”

“Mitchy,” the woman answered. Harry noted it down. 

“Sandshrew is the pre-evolutionary form of the pokemon Sandslash. Did he ever display any indication that he was of a strength to evolve? If so, how was it decided that he would not evolve?” Harry asked.

“He never showed anything that I can remember that showed he was close to evolution. I know I’m a registered trainer but I was mostly casual, I only had a few professional battles with Mitchy,” she answered. Harry nodded and noted her words down. 

“This question is a bit more sensitive,” Harry said. “What can you tell me about the manner of his death?” 

“Um, he just didn’t wake up one morning, I brought him to the Pokecenter but he was already gone and there was nothing that the Joy’s could do,” she answered. Harry noted it down. 

“Do you happen to remember the name of the Joy you talked to?” Harry asked. All the nurses in the pokeworld took on the title of Joy, just as all the city police force members had the title of Jenny. It was a nod to the twins Joy and Jenny who were the first in history to be recorded as opening a pokemon hospital, as well as serving as what would eventually be called a policewoman. 

“I don’t, I live here in Lavender though, so he serves at this Pokecenter if that helps,” she said. Harry nodded. 

“Can you describe any non-League recorded abilities you saw Mitchy display?” Harry asked. 

“Um, once he followed me onto the house roof when I was up there with a.. Uh friend,” she blushed before continuing. “He fell off and curled up into a ball before he hit the ground, um Mitchy I mean. I brought him to the Pokecenter in case he was hurt but they said he was fine.” Harry noted it down. 

“Can you tell me all the League titled moves he knew and if you had any original moves or techniques he knew, a name and description of the technique,” Harry asked. Despite describing herself as a casual trainer, the woman had been rather creative in her training of Mitchy and it took half an hour to record everything. Harry continued to ask many questions including feeding habits, sleeping habits, and exercise. 

“Alright,” Harry said when they were finally finished. “Since you were registered as a trainer and have a pokedex, you will receive a message when Mitchy’s ashes are ready to be collected. We will use his pokeball as his urn but you are welcome to transfer them to another container after pick-up, You will be required to show your ID and come in person.” She nodded and wiped at her eyes rubbing the unfallen tears away. 

“Well that’s everything, do you have any questions?” Harry asked. 

“No,” she said standing. Harry rose as well and held his hand to shake. “Thank-you for your contribution and once again my apologies for your loss.” She took his hand and shook it gently before leaving. Harry watched her go and then filed the notes he’d written into the file. He’d have to type up a copy later, to put in the file, as well as upload the notes, but for now this would do. He put the file and the great ball containing Mitchy into a sealable plastic bag, with a hanging hook before calling for Mervin. 

“Hey Harry, you called,” the man called peeking out from behind the partition. “Oh we got one?” the man asked rhetorically. 

“Yeah,” Harry answered. “And I realized I forgot something, startlingly stupid.” The older man looked confused? 

“What?” Elm asked. “I didn’t see anything in the project proposal that you forgot, in fact you were extremely meticulous.” 

“I know,” Harry said with a sigh, “But I realized that if one of us is always playing receptionist then one of us will always be missing the autopsy.” The other man frowned before brightening slightly. 

“We have a miscellaneous fund right?” the man said. 

“Yeah,” Harry said, not following. 

“We could hire someone to work as a receptionist for the four week days we’re open to the public and pay them via that fund. I’m sure there is a retiree that wouldn’t mind the work, or even an prospective university student looking to make some extra cash over the summer,” the older man suggested. Harry lit up. 

“That’s a great idea,” Harry said. “I’ll email the League to let them know, can you put up the ad on the conversation boards?” Harry asked. 

“Of course,” the man said smiling at Harry’s sudden display of youthful exuberance even if Harry was oblivious of it. 

“Sure,” Elm said. “If you’d like I’ll take that to the morgue, so you can stay here in case anyone else comes in, you have a Silph phone right? You could send the email on there.” 

“Yeah,” Harry said, “That works. Oh can you pull out something for dinner tonight?” Harry asked. “I noticed we have a slow cooker, so we can use that tomorrow but I need something for tonight.” Elm seemed surprised at Harry’s sudden switch from childish happiness to seriousness. He’d get used to it. Harry was technically a sixteen year old in a ten year old’s body, but at the same time was only ten years old. Interdemensional travel and physiological manipulation was a delicate thing, even for legendary, godlike pokemon and it was no shock that Harry was a little odd.

“I’ll pull out some chicken and vegetables. Stir-fry is quick and easy,” Elm said taking the sealed bag. Harry nodded and retired to the table he’d been building his laptop prototype. Using his phone Harry sent off a quick email carefully wording it properly, to the League detailing the decision to hire a receptionist. 

Two more people came in, donating their pokemon’s bodies, one a young trainer, Harry’s age who lost his Rattata when the pokemon had defended him from an entire herd of Nindoran and Nindorina. The boy had come in with both of his parents, and Harry had promised to treat Sneak, the Rattata with respect, and Goldfyre even came over from where he’d been lazing below Otto’s chosen perch and put his head on the boy’s lap to comfort him. The other was an older fellow laying to rest his faithful Persian. At six o’clock Harry closed the entrance of the tent and tied the straps. Picking up the empty food trough Harry whistled to wake Otto and let him and Goldfyre know it was time for dinner. Mervin was cooking up a stir-fry when Harry entered the kitchen, and after feeding Fyre and Otto, Harry gathered the necessary utensils. 

Three days later, Harry and Mervin had a receptionist, and were about to perform their first pokemon autopsy. Everything was set up for them to begin. Harry and Mervin were dressed in protective gear, safety goggles, plastic overalls, gloves and all. Harry looked over to the older man, who nodded, before he flicked the button to turn on the video and audio recording divorce. 

“It is,” Harry began pushing up his overalls to check his watch before fixing the sleeve again, “Ten after oh nine hundred, on June sixth of the year thirty-seven twelve, Mervin Elm and Harry Oak to preside over the exploratory autopsy and dissection of pokemon number zero six eight thirteen twenty, aka Mitchy, here on referred to as Subject One, or Subject.” 

“Subject One,a male Sandshrew was underweight for his species at time of death, weighing only nineteen pounds and seven ounces, in comparison to the average weight of twenty-five pounds eight ounces. Subject appeared not to have any injury contributing to cause of death, and the external scan revealed nothing,” Oak continued, as Harry used the showerhead and hose to gently spray down the pokemon’s body. Finishing the washing, Harry began to make observations. 

“Subject has the normal colorations and markings of his species, but his block scales appear to have a matte coloration rather than the glossy sheen marking a healthy and well fed Sandshrew,” Harry said as he began to inspect the claws. “Subject’s claws seem thin but still within his species average.”

“Subject One was observed to visually have the traditional tough skin of its species. To test the toughness and resilience of the skin scales, three scales will be removed from three different locations, specifically, tail, back, and head,” Mervin continued as Harry used an extremely sharp scalpel to cut out three scales from each of the aforementioned locations, setting them in groups of three on separate trays according from the location where they were harvested. 

“Scale’s removed,” Harry said, passing the last tray to Mervin who turned to put it on the empty exam table, and setting the scalpel down. “We’ll begin with an impact test, it should be noted that the room’s temperature is at three degree’s celsius,” Harry continued, picking up a small metal hammer and rounding the autopsy table to reach the work table. 

The autopsy continued on, Mervin and Harry finding that the Sandshrew, had been somewhat malnourished at the time of his death, with an extremely low potassium level, likely leading to the cause of death, which seemed to be heart failure, though the por pokemon’s organs and muscles showed that it had not been a short walk to death, but that the malnourishment had gone on for at least a year. The malnourishment was odd because according to his trainer the pokemon was on a free feed system. Yet the ground mouse pokemon was malnourished nonetheless. They put it off as a quirk or genetic defect in the pokemon’s ability to absorb potassium from his food, simply noting it and moving on. 

Each of the pokemon’s organs were weighed before being carefully dissected, findings being uploaded for all League scientists to see. Harry made sure that all of the pokemon’s body matter was placed inside a sealable container once they were finished with it so they could ensure that they kept their promise and cremated the entire body of the pokemon when they were completely finished. 

After the Sandshrew, was Sneak the Rattata, then the Persian, and then another sandshrew which seemed to also be somewhat malnourished, though not nearly as much as Mitchy had been. They were averaging one exploratory autopsy and dissection a day, documenting it all and uploading it for other scientists to use as the stepping stones for their own research. Then came a string of pokemon, who, though it was not the cause of their deaths, certainly didn’t help, were malnourished. None of them had much in common, not typing, not physical attributes, Harry just couldn’t find the connection between a two year old Pikachu, a seven year old Poliwag, a four year old Cubone, or the five year old Dratini, beyond that all of them were pre-evolutionary stage of other pokemon, and that they had all died, seemingly peacefully and well before the average age of their species lifespans. Harry and Mervin carefully recorded the nutrients that each seemed to be missing via blood tests and other tests on each organ. 

Mervin Elm was focusing more on the reproductive systems of the pokemon, but he too was concerned about the malnourishment of certain pokemon. The older man discovered that all pokemon, at least so far seemed to have the same reproductive process, and theorized that pokemon could, at least in theory, cross breed, something pokemon Breeders had always been unsure of because a pokemon’s habit of hiding during the entire breeding process. He also found that like many regular reptilian creatures, female pokemon had oviducts, leading the man to believe that pokemon went through the process of oviposition, or egg laying. It was a major discovery, and the man was speeding through his thesis paper, and was clearly flying towards his Ph.D. Harry however was stumped on the mystery of malnourished pokemon. 

He’d flown home to spend his eleventh birthday with his family, and Harry couldn’t help but think, that for all that discovering he had magic was amazing, he preferred this eleventh birthday more than his first one. It was while he was home in Pallet Town, watching Goldfyre sneak a piece of cheese from the platter on the counter after they’d had cake, that he had a realization. With a gasp he was on his feet, the eyes of the entire Oak family on him, even the rather arrogant Gary, who’s quietly mocking Harry about not being a real Oak, Harry had been ignoring. 

“What is it Harry?” his father asked. 

“I think I figured it out,” Harry said excitedly, pulling out his cellphone and dialing Mervin Elm’s number.

“Happy Birthday!” Mervin answered brightly. 

“Hello, thank-you, can you get the files I put aside? All the ones pertaining to the malnourishment mystery?” Harry asked quickly. Elm seemed to sense Harry’s animated urgency, and seemed to drop whatever he was doing to do as Harry asked.

“Go ‘em,” Mervin said. 

“Alright, look in the notes I made, the feeding habits section and put them side by side,” Harry said.

“We did that already,” Mervin said though Harry could hear him still following Harry’s order. “Some of them were on a self feed system, others on a meticulously measured and timed system, and some a mix, there was no connection.”

“The connection is not the when, or how they eat but the what,” Harry said excitedly. 

“They all eat pokefood, just like every other captured pokemon,” Elm said not seeing the connection Harry did. 

“Yes, but they only eat pokefood, all of them for at least a year,” Harry said. “Even those on a free feed system. If you look at the pokemon that weren’t malnourished, they had supplemented diets, either berries, that they liked or I remember one man saying that his pokemon absolutely loved toast, and Goldfyre is a good fan of cheese, so they had human food as well. Pokefood was made to give what was believed to be the perfect amount of nutrients, but it was based on regular animals. You’ll notice, none of the pokemon who were malnourished were normal type, and their systems were the closest to regular animal systems. Pokemon of different types require more of certain nutrients in order to be properly nourished! It hasn’t been realized yet because most people let their pokemon eat berries or have treats, and many don’t by pokefood at all. It is a rather new concept, only seven or eight years old, there are plenty of people who still use regular food plans for their pokemon, despite the higher expense,” Harry could hear the man flipping through papers double checking Harry’s theory. 

“Ho-Oh be damned,” Elm said, “You’re right! Harry this has to be published immediately. It needs to be known, before any more pokemon suffer.” Harry looked to his father who simply nodded looking proudly at Harry. Harry could see that the man was also worried about the thought of pokemon dying due to a global miscalculation.

“I’m on my way, can you email the League? They can get started on how this is going to be released to the public. It’ll be late when I arrive but, like you said this needs to be published immediately,” Harry said. His legs were still sore from the flight from Lavender to Pallet he’d taken this morning but he was committed to righting this wrong that had been done to capture pokemon. 

“Alright,” Elm said and Harry could already hear the clacking of computer keys as the man speed typed. “Have a safe flight, see you when you get here.” 

“Will do,” Harry said before hanging up, neither of them bothering to say goodbye. He wondered if this was part of the reason that Breeders had such difficulty actually breeding pokemon. He knew that some regular animal breeding patterns waned when there wasn’t enough food to go around. Perhaps subconsciously pokemon refrained from breeding as well when their nutrient need wasn’t being fully met. The low breeding rates were also the most likely reason, that despite Elm’s theory about egg birth, no pokemon egg had ever been found, and the reason that captured and domesticated pokemon were so secretive about their young. Realizing something Harry turned to his father. 

“Otto can’t make another trip to Lavender Town so soon,” Harry said. 

“No but Pyro could make the trip,” his father said. 

“Pyro doesn’t listen to me,” Harry said, thinking of his father’s very proud Charzard. 

“He listens to me,” his father said. “It's almost seven pm and it’s a six hour flight, you aren’t going alone, give me half an hour to pack an overnight bag and we’ll be off. Harry nodded. Goldfyre was returned to his pokeball for the flight, as was Otto, who would be returning with Harry as well. While the nineteen year old Pidgeot was still Harry’s father’s, the bird liked Harry, likely because of the exercise Harry was able to give the bird by flying back and forth between Lavender Town and home. Harry’s father had less time to spend with his personal pokemon due to running the premier pokemon lab in Kanto. 

It was well and truly dark when they arrived in Lavender, streetlights providing enough light to land. Harry had fallen asleep, head and body pillowed back into his father’s body, the man’s arms around him to hold the reins as they flew.

For the next three months things moved swiftly. Harry was suddenly in charge of a global project instead of just a temporary League Lab. Luckily his father and Mervin Elm were quick to lend a hand to keep him from being overwhelmed. Their temporary lab was expanded, six more tents erected in Lavender Town which suddenly became a bustling hub of activity. With the help of Dr. Clifton Birch, the premier pokemon professor of the Hoenn region and head of a lab in Littleroot Town, Harry researched what exactly each type of pokemon needed which nutrient. The man was well versed in pokemon habitat and his knowledge helped them in figuring out what nutrients certain pokemon were likely to seek out in the wild. A throwaway comment by the man, concerning a Hoenn practice of creating solidified food out of berry mixtures, known as pokeblocks, launched Harry along with Gregory Silph, and Charles Stone into creating type specific pokefoods, that would truly provide the necessary ingredients for each pokemon. 

Despite Silph Co. and Devon Company being direct competitors they worked together to have a product made and ready for mass distribution in just under four months of the research starting. A contract with the Galar based conglomerate and the product was on the shelves of pokemarts worldwide less than a month later. For his discovery and due to his contribution to the creation of new specialized pokefoods, Harry was awarded a bonus of two hundred thousand pokedollars by the League, and an educational sponsorship should Harry decide he wished to pursue university. The Presidents of Silph Co. and Devon, also decided that since the project was based on Harry’s findings, despite the research technically belonging to the League, that two percent of the profits from the product belonged to Harry. Fifteen percent of the profits were bound for the League, but two percent was no joke. In the first month of production alone, Harry netted almost half a million pokedollars, and the profits didn’t look to be slowing. 

Money wasn’t the only thing that Harry got. Due to the amount of people who worked on the project, and the amount of lab tents opened in Lavender, Harry got to foster personal relationships with many other scientists, both pokemon professors and various company professors, along with League and various company personnel. It was these connections and a bit of a lucky chance that launched Harry’s laptop idea. 

Harry yawned as he blearily padded out of the kitchen area of his lab. It was one pm on a Sunday, but he’d been pulling late nights as they finished up their research. Three of the lab tents had already come down as people began returning home with the completion of the research project. Harry would be leaving in a week or two as well. A permanent lab was already in the works to be built in Lavender, workers from Macros Cosmos Construction building a structure on a cleared lot on the southern end of town. Mervin Elm, now a professor in his own right, after the acceptance of his thesis paper, and his successful defense of it, was offered the position of lead, but the man had turned it down in favor of returning to his home region rather than moving his family to Kanto. Instead Professor Quentin Werty would be heading the lab, continuing using much of the same processes that Harry had developed to dissect dead pokemon donated to the lab. Due to the sheer amount of pokemon bodies being donated, a mausoleum was in the planning works, to be built next to the tower. While many people buried their pokemon in the pokemon tower already. People had been going to various pokemon labs and donating their dead pokemon. Monthly transport was already being looked at to deliver these donations to the Lavender Lab since a nano PC transfer only worked with living pokemon. The creator of the program was already looking for a way around this, without opening the system up to illegal blackmarkets on pokemon parts. 

Harry was drinking a glass of citrus berry juice and was still in his pyjama pants and shirt when he entered the front work area of the lab tent, intent on putting a little work into his laptop prototype. Three people were leaning over the table that held his machine and were examining it. It took a moment for Harry to realize who they were. 

“Mr. Silph, Mr. Stone, Steven,” Harry greeted as he approached the table. All three of them looked up at him. There was a clear relation between Mr. Stone and his son Steven shared their blue eyes and one could tell that Mr. Stone's salt and pepper grey hair had once been as dark black as Steven’s. 

“Young, Harry!” greeted Mr. Silph excitedly. “Please tell me you’re the young genius behind this absolutely brilliant piece of technology.”

“I am attempting to build a fully portable computer, yes,” Harry answered. “My only issue is making it cordlessly able to connect to the pokenet. Perhaps you could help me with that, I was hoping to create something like the cellular network you use for the Silph phones, perhaps with your help the laptop, what I’m calling it, could piggyback on the network?” Harry asked, perking up at the idea. 

“That sounds like an intriguing idea,” Mr. Shiph said rubbing his chin. 

“Used the general idea of the pokedex to create a few programs that aren’t available on a regular computer, and have been working on a global index for pokemon, expanding on the regional index’s already available. I also created this,” Harry paused to point at a little lens attached to the top workings of the prototype. “It functions as a video camera, allowing the laptop to be used as a recording device. This would allow people like myself to directly record video onto the computer rather than having to connect a recording device up and download the video onto the computer, making it more efficient. I haven’t figured out how to fit a pokedex scanner into the screen of the device but it's still a prototype.” All three men were quiet Steven and his son seemingly having a silent conversation, Mr. Silph looked up and joined it when he finished inspecting the recording device Harry had worked into the frame.

“Do you have a blueprint design?” Steven asked after a moment. Harry looked up at the older man. Steven was almost thirteen years older than Harry at twenty-four. 

“Yeah,” Harry said. Digging through the pile of paperwork for his notebook. “Here,” Harry said, passing it to the man after finding it. Harry watched nervously as the three men perused the design that Harry created, Mr. Silph lifting the prototype to inspect it in comparison to the blueprints. The men looked at each other again, and then Mr. Stone spoke. 

“Young man,” Mr. Stone began. “Would you be willing to sell this design to Devon and Silph?” 

“Um, i guess,” Harry said. “I’d definitely want a decent price, and maybe as a courtesy one of the finished products when you make it?” Harry asked, “I’d like to talk to my Dad before I officially decide anything though.”

“Of course, is Samuel here or has he returned to Pallet?” Mr. Silph asked. 

“He doesn’t leave till tomorrow,” Harry answered. “He should be in one of the other lab tents, I can call him and ask him to come here if he can.”

“Do that,” Mr. Stone said. “This design could launch a whole new line of technological innovations.” Harry nodded and pulled out his Silph phone to dial before lifting it to his ear. Mr. Stone had not been wrong. Harry’s design not only allowed for portable computers, but with a refining by both Silph and Devon, computers and computer like technology became extremely commonplace. In just under two years touch screens became a thing and there were various versions based from Harry’s design everywhere. In fact Harry had even managed to complete dual degrees in pokemon biology and engineering completely online on his on his own O.S.D Laptop, or Oak, Silph, Devon Laptop, from Pallet town and at the age of fifteen published his thesis on the anatomy of pokemon types and their evolutionary markers. A month and a half after that Harry was the youngest holder of a doctorate in pokemon studies. He was also a multi-millionare though much of the money he donated to breeder farms, which had also boomed. Professor Elm’s theories had been proven and captured pokemon while still exceedingly protective of their young, egg form or newly hatched, had become more likely to reproduce even in captivity. Safari Zones had even begun breeding programs to help stop the extinction of certain pokemon. 

The Oak family was exceedingly proud of their fifteen year old member. Though there was one member who was clearly jealous of Harry’s accomplishments. One Gary Oak, seemed to dislike the love and pride his family gave Harry despite the fact that his parents clearly doted on him. The now ten year old, who was preparing to begin his pokemon journey as a registered trainer, took every opportunity to snidely remind Harry that he was adopted, and not a blood member of the Oak family. Harry no longer let the boy’s words hurt him. He knew that despite the lack of blood relation his father loved him even if his nephew didn’t seem to. 

Harry had changed over the eight years that he’d been in this world. He still had his deep black hair, no longer worn short and windswept, but long and often up in a high man bun. It’s length weighed it down keeping it from getting too wild, and was silky soft. He’d gotten his eyes fixed a year ago, finally being old enough to undergo the surgery, though he still on occasion used reading glasses to help with eye strain when working on his computer. Harry though he’d certainly grown and filled out, was rather short for his age, chin still only barely topping his father’s shoulder, at five four. His build fit well with his body, deceptively muscular, with a slight lankiness that gave him a pretty coltish and lithe build. His face had filled out from the starved sharp angles they’d once been, softening but still defined with high cheekbones and bottom heavy petal pink lips. His skin was several tones darker than his father’s milk white but was youthfully smooth, with little to no blemish.

It was four days after Harry’s graduation, only two before the official opening of trainer registration for the year when Harry told his father about his decision on what to do next. 

“The League is opening up a new lab in Pasio,” Harry said while he and his father ate breakfast together. His father looked up from his tablet where he was reading his paper. Harry swallowed another bite of his cereal. “They offered me the lead position.” Harry continued. 

“That’s a distance away,” his father said. Harry nodded as he swallowed another spoonful. 

“A seven day boat trip,” Harry agreed. 

“Are you going to take it? It’s a wonderful opportunity,” his father asked. “You certainly would be good at the job.” Harry could hear the sadness in the man’s voice and knew without his father saying it, the man would be sad to see Harry go so far away. 

“Turned it down last night,” Harry answered. His father looked at him in surprise. “I decided that I don’t want to be bound to any single lab,” Harry said. “And I want to go on a pokemon journey. I know most professors do the journey first so I’m doing it a little backwards, but I’ve always been a little odd. Besides, think of all the things I could discover on a journey. I’d take Goldfyre of course, I’d have to leave Otto behind, he’s not really mine despite how faithful he’s been,” His father was smiling widely. 

“That sounds amazing son,” Oak said. “Do you plan on leaving on registration day?” 

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about it for a while, got the gear I needed last time I was in Saffron instead of paying for delivery. I was going to get a head start on the new trainers and leave tomorrow morning,” Harry answered. His father nodded. 

“Come to the lab after breakfast, I have something for you,” his father said. “You already have a pokemon so you don’t need a starter but I was planning on sending one of the eggs the Dragonite at the lab laid a few days ago, to Professor Elm via the PC transport. She laid three but seems to abandon the smallest of them. You could take it with you instead if you’d like?” Harry nodded. 

“Yeah, I’d love that Dad,” Harry said smiling widely.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.maptoglobe.com/HyrbMyvP8
> 
> This is the map I’m using of all the regions if anyone wants a visual

Harry woke early the next morning and lazed for a few moments, listening to Goldfyre snore loudly, his head on Harry’s belly. The little beast had his own bed on the floor, but Harry no longer bothered trying to get him to sleep in it. Once Harry fell asleep Goldfyre would just hop up to sleep with him anyways. The Growlithe was still a little smaller than the average Growlithe standing at only two feet two inches to the average two four, but he was a healthy weight, and he and Harry ran together each morning. 

Finally Harry rolled out of bed dislodging Fyre who grumbled but stretched before flopping off the bed. The pokemon egg that his father had given him the day before was on the other pillow sitting motionlessly. Harry stripped down out of his pajamas throwing them into his hamper, he’d put all of his dirty clothes into the wash after breakfast. He’d packed a few of his most hardy outfits, mostly in dark grey or black canvas pants, and a mixture of thick and thin half sleeve cotton shirts, once again mostly grey and black, though he knew there was a scarlet red, and navy blue shirt in there as well. He’d also packed two sets of pyjama pants and oversized t-shirts to sleep in, a windbreak and two jumpers. Thanks to Devon empty space enhancement nanotech his bag was able to hold, a small single person tent, a sleeping roll extra blanket, a large water container, a first aid kit, for both humans and pokemon, also able to hold a second bag that had his laptop and tablet and a small lab kit with items that would allow him to do minor work in the field, and a few other necessities, he even put one of his lab coats inside. He quickly double checked everything, before making sure that his pokedex with it’s wallet case that had a pouch for his touch phone was on top of the bag. 

His trainer ID card was in the wallet portion of the case, and functioned as his bank card as well as his identification card. His father being the head Professor of the Kanto pokemon lab, and his own identity as a Pokemon Professor allowed Harry to push his official trainer registration a day early. Professional trainers, or trainers competing for the League were required to register. One of the reasons was because of the differences between professional battling and casual battling. If a Registered Professional trainer was challenged by another Professional trainer, money was on the line. The amount of money was decided by an automated algorithm that took into account the battle experience and wealth of the trainer and was embedded in the trainer ID upon registration. When a trainer was challenged, their pokedex would be used to scan the other trainers ID and to film the battle. This was to prevent any form of cheating or interference in the system even when professional trainers were off the grid. 

Registration was also for another reason. In a world filled with creatures that had extreme destructive powers it wasn’t rare for cataclysmic events to occur. As a Registered Professional trainer, Harry would be required to help if he got a call alert that he was in an area experiencing or set to experience a disaster or similar event, or be fined or possibly jailed for dereliction of duty. Currently Harry was only a tier two trainer, meaning he had no battle experience and no gym badge, but had displayed above average knowledge of pokemon, meaning he’d only be on the front lines of a green or blue alert level event, but would be regulated to fallback or possibly even medi-work in any level higher. His tier level also restricted the type of pokemon he could carry on him despite the fact that he was not restricted to the six pokemon carry limit like many other trainers. Unlike many other trainers, who would not even be allowed to keep their above tier levelled captured pokemon should they get one Harry would, he’d simply have to PC transfer them to his father’s lab until he was of a tier level to handle them. As a pokemon professor he had many perks but being allowed to train tier level pokemon he was not considered experienced enough to handle was not one of them. 

Goldfyre as a Growlithe was considered a tier two pokemon, due to the species' loyal and generally friendly nature as a captured pokemon, but generally exceedingly territorial in the wild. It was also a carnivorous pokemon, with many smaller pokemon such as Ratatta as it’s natural prey. THis meant Harry had to be able to display control of Goldfyre to ensure he didn't eat someone's pokemon in battle. Harry would not be allowed to carry him if he evolved into an Arcanine before Harry was a tier three. Although Harry had an everstone with him, Fyre wouldn’t need it as his species never evolved without eating a firestone. A rather rare rock that formed generally around volcanoes as it was magma that seemed to crystalize rather than just harden, and looked much like an clear opal with fire raging within it.

Alert levels were a little more complex, due to dependency on a lot of factors, the main being the probability of casualties, human and pokemon, the tier level of the pokemon at fault. Green level alerts were for tier one pokemon threats to non-civilization areas, such as poliwags a tier one reducing established trails to mud swamps. Annoying and slightly dangerous if an unwary person got stuck but generally a bit of a scare would send the pokemon off without injury to the trainers or anyone else. Generally only the first few trainers who managed to respond to this alert were actually sent off, and it was a good training exercise for novice trainers. Blue was the next up alert level, and also encompassed a few non-pokemon caused events as well. It encompassed things like minor forest fires, or building fires, where trainers would play support to the actual firefighters, search and rescue assists for missing people and similar events, trainers were predominantly used as support by established rescue teams ect. rather than on the front lines. 

Then came Yellow level events. These events were considered possibly life threatening or destructive to an established civilized area. Trainers, had to be at least tier level three, meaning having at least two gym badges in the same region, as well as be considered of age in the region of the alert, sixteen from Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn and seventeen everywhere else, and have at least one tier two level pokemon to be sent to the front line. All other trainers were regulated to the secondary lines depending on their trainer teir. Orange, Red, and Silver events were similar to the Yellow events just amplified in ascending sequence based upon the danger level. The final level, the Gold alert called for any and all people owning a pokemon, no matter their designation as professional trainer or as a civilian was called for an all hands on deck. These events were considered possible mass extinction events, generally caused by a large amount of their seven and above pokemon. Legendary pokemon fell into this level, as well as extremely powerful pokemon like mega evolved pokemon. Ancient pokemon, who were revived from fossils generally fell into this category as well, due both in part to the lack of knowledge about the pokemon as well as their power.

Swiftly Harry exited the room to the bathroom across the hall that was solely his, his father having his own ensuite. He took a lengthy shower wrapping his towel around his waist before drying his hair with another towel and braiding it back so it would be out of the way. Harry wiped the condensation that had gathered off of the mirror and stared at himself. He was physically a year older than he had been when he’d first come here. Fifteen to his mental twenty-two, he swallowed. He’d never told anyone about his past life, heeding Mew, and Mewtwo’s words. He looked quite different from what he had before, there was the superficial looks, like his hair, long enough to braid so it sat in between his shoulders, his missing glasses, and even the fact that he had filled out, along with the various scars he’d acquired from handling pokemon. Like the electrical burn scar on his left palm from trying to help the young pikachu that had been dropped off at the lab a week ago. Potions had dealt with the injury and the pain but the skin would always have an almost webbing look on to it, a permanent mark. These things weren’t the only reason he looked different, no, Harry seemed to have a sense of confidence and purpose about him now. No longer was he a beaten down little boy watching for the next disaster. No he was an exceptionally mature teenager, well on his way to becoming a man. 

Harry gathered his toiletries up into a small shower bag now that he’d finished his morning shower, walking back to his room with the bag to pack into his backpack, still in only the towel. Goldfyre tilted his head as Harry walked in.

_“No run?”_ the pokemon asked. Harry had for the past few years taken to running in the mornings with Fyre, as a way to start the day with a bit of healthy exercise for both of them. 

“No, we’re leaving today anyways, we’ll get exercise from walking,” Harry answered as he began dressing in the clothes he’d meticulously picked out for today. Black canvas cargo style pants, well tailored, leaving Harry’s legs looking longer than they actually were, a dark forest green half sleeved shirt, leaving his forearms exposed. His silver poke etch wristwatch gleamed as it caught sunlight from the window when he strapped it onto his wrist before he donned leather forest green fingerless gloves. The weather was supposed to be warm today so Harry had packed away his windbreaker coat, settling instead for a black sleeveless vest, made of the same canvas material as his pants, and finally a dark grey flat cap on his head. He removed a few of the pokeballs he’d purchased from his backpack and put them into one of his pants pockets. 

“Lets get breakfast,” Harry said, grabbing his backpack and laundry bag, putting the egg on top of the dirty clothes for easy carry. He’d put it in the egg pouch of his backpack after breakfast. Harry had packed an entire twenty-five pound bag of pokemon food, and had even purchased five pounds each of every type specific pokefood, that needed to be mixed with the regular pokefood to give each type the proper nutrients, in the largest pocket of his nanotech backpack. Harry was thankful that the technology that allowed things to fit in spaces that were seemingly smaller than the object also negated weight. As with pokeballs it also put everything inside into stasis.The only exception was the egg pouch, it was a specifically designed feature, so that one didn’t have to constantly carry the egg in their arms in order to give it time to hatch. 

_“Food!”_ Goldfyre replied excitedly racing down the stairs with all the grace of a thirty-five pound bull. Harry snorted, as his father opened his door and looked down the hallway at Harry, still blearily, half asleep. 

“I told him we were getting breakfast,” Harry said to explain. His father didn’t say a word already understanding, Goldfyre was a bit of a glutton for food. His father padded into the hallway and wrapped Harry in a hug. 

“Call,” the man ordered, “Often.” Harry hugged his father back. 

“I will, I promise,” Harry said. “I love you Dad.” 

“I love you too, son,” Oak replied back. “Be safe, and have a good trip.” Harry smiled as the extricated from one another and his father blearily rubbed at his eyes. 

“I will, bye Dad,” Harry said. 

“Bye son,” Oak replied. Harry turned and half skipped down the stairs. He could feel his father’s eyes on his back before hearing the door closed as his father went back to bed. Goldfyre was waiting in the kitchen for Harry. 

_“Slow,”_ Fyre grumbled as Harry passed by, setting his backpack on the table and laundry bag on the floor.. Reaching for the container he’d had made the evening before, Harry unsealed it and set it on the ground for Fyre to eat before picking up the laundry bag and heading to the laundry room. It took him less than five minutes to have a load in and ready to go. Returning to the kitchen, Harry made himself a quick breakfast of cornflakes, and pecha berry pieces. Washing his bowl and the container that had held Goldfyre’s food Harry finally grabbed his backpack and turned to the door. Lacing up his trusty dark brown hiking boots, swinging his backpack over his shoulders and opening the front door Harry couldn’t help but think that describing trainer journey’s as adventures was completely accurate. It felt like his first step out the door behind Goldfyre was the first step of something enormous. 

Goldfyre walked perfectly beside Harry as they made their way across town towards route one. Harry had trained Goldfyre, to do so in order to ensure that no one got angry about the puppy pokemon being out of his ball, since he behaved so well. Harry and Fyre had almost made it all the way to the end of town when he ran into his sister in law and his oh so wonderful nephew. 

“Hello Harry!” Maranda greeted happily. “Where are you heading?” 

“Registered as a league professional trainer, I’m off to Viridian,” Harry answered. 

“You liar! Registration day isn’t until tomorrow!” Gary shouted. 

“Gary!” his mother scolded. 

“Technically I was already registered, just as a pokemon Professor, Dad just helped me add, Professional trainer to the designation and microchipped my card,” Harry answered. 

“See Gary,” Maranda said. “You shouldn’t accuse someone of lying before you know the full story.” 

“Hurrumph,” Gary pouted. “It’s not fair, he’s my grandfather, can’t he register me early too?” 

“Well I’ve got to be off,” Harry said, waving before continuing, he had no wish to stick around while Maranda pandered to the spoiled child. Goldfyre scoffed as they continued past the boy and his mother. 

_“Brat.”_

“Yup,” Harry replied. The first hour of their trip was quiet, their surroundings familiar to both of them. Harry had come out along route one several times over the years, generally if he had to go to one of the cities, he’d ride Otto however, even to Viridian turning a four hour walk into a half hour flight, so he’d never been on the northern half of the route. For the most part however it all looked the same. Harry and Goldfyre stuck mostly to the road, instead of walking through the grass plains that surrounded them in every direction. Harry nodded as a greeting to the team of two rangers that had passed him on their patrol of the route. A few Rattata crossed the path but didn’t stick around or try to challenge Harry and Fyre. Overhead flocks of pidgey’s flitted. Harry had debated with himself about catching a pidgey he could train and evolve to be just as powerful as Otto, his father’s Pidgeot, but Harry decided that despite his no limit to carry amount he wanted to stick with pokemon he had never met, or were in some way rare, in order to continue learning. 

As Harry and Fyre passed by over the Little Plank Bridge that crossed Pallet stream, a tree that was used as a landmark for travellers to know that Viridian was a twenty minute walk away, they were sprayed by a light stream of mud and water. 

_“Cold!”_ Fyre said immediately ducking behind Harry to avoid the spray of cold water and mud. Fyre hated getting wet, with the exception of a warm bath since he knew Harry would rub him down with a towel to dry him afterwards, as well as brush out his fur. 

“Shit,” Harry cursed wiping the muck from his eyes and looking at the pokemon who seemed to be laughing at Harry and Fyre. Harry was taken aback for a moment. Though pokemon that weren’t native to regions occasionally migrated and turned up in another region, it was still somewhat uncommon, yet here in front of Harry was a pokemon native to the Johto region. Harry scanning the pokemon with his pokedex to ensure it was above the legal catch age. “Goldfyre, I promise you an extra long brush tonight if you help me catch this Totodile,” Harry bribed. 

_“Battle!”_ Goldfyre yipped leaping out from behind Harry, ready to do battle. “Awesome,” Harry whispered. “Alright, he’s a water type, and has a decently thick leather plate hide so none of your fire attacks will do much damage, but you’re going to want to stay out of range of his jaws, one bite from him could do serious damage,” Harry told his partner. “Let’s start off with some Agility,” Harry ordered using the League move codeword for a specific pokemon move technique. “Stay out of range, and circle him, let him extend himself trying to keep up. Go.” Immediately Fyre leapt into action weaving and dodging as he circled to pokemon on the riverbank. Several times the Totodile attempted to jump Fyre with jaws wide but Harry's golden pokemon was much faster. Slowly the Totodile petered off in its attempts to catch Fyre in his jaws, instead focusing on the ranged attack it obviously knew well; Water Gun. “Careful, Goldfyre,” Harry said seeing the big jaw pokemon back up till his feet were in the water. “He’ll need charge up time in between the Water Guns, combine your Agility and Fire Fang, aim at his legs and belly, watch his jaws and tail. His spines might still be small but they could still hurt you,” Harry ordered as he watched the fight, pokeball ready in his hand. Goldfyre did perfectly, dodging the first and second streams of water the totodile shot before lunging in, barely a golden blur and ducking back out leaving a completely cauterized bite wound on one of the only vulnerable sections of the Totodiles body, the inner leg. The Totodile screeched in pain but stayed standing glaring at Goldfyre. “Again, Goldfyre watch for an opening,” Harry ordered. The Totodile shot another water gun, and Goldfyre shot forward. Harry’s eyes widened as the Totodile’s mouth opened it’s teeth suddenly glistening the pokemon’s breath steaming as though the air was cold. “Goldfyre dodge!” Goldfyre aborted the move at the last second, the Totodile’s Ice Fang attack just barely missing Goldfyre’s tail when the Growlithe stumbled slightly as his leg hit one of the sharper rocks on the mostly sand river bank in his escape. While ice based moves weren’t very effective against Goldfyre, the bite itself would still greatly injure the young Growlithe if it landed. Harry was surprised however, the pokedex had put Totodile at two years old, certainly not a baby as the water pokemon was legal to catch six months after it’s hatching but ice fang was a rather powerful attack, especially for a young wild pokemon. “Alright Goldfyre, I know it won’t be as effective, use Flamethrower aim where you got him with your Fire Fang. You got this,” Harry directed. _“Feel the burn!”_ Goldfyre shouted, launching a whipping stream of flame at the pokemon. Harry sweatdropped. 

“I so regret showing you that video,” Harry said under his breath, as he watched Totodile seem to tank the hit. Goldfyre’s flames tapered off and the Totodile remained standing before suddenly flopping over, fainting in exhaustion and giving in to his injuries. Harry tossed the pokeball he’d primed and waited for the flash to signal capture, Goldfyre stayed in a ready crouch just in case. There! Harry punched his fist up into the air. Although Harry had technically caught Goldfyre there had been no battle before hand, the young pokemon simply allowing Harry to catch him without a fight, and while Harry and Goldfyre had battled together before, it was casual battles, usually with his father or one of the lab aides and never completely on it’s own.

“You’re the best Goldfyre!” Harry praised his Growlithe as he walked down the bank to pick up the motionless pokeball. “Alright, we’ll register Totodile on the Pokedex in a minute, let me see your leg, I saw you stumble.” 

_“Fyre okay,”_ Goldfyre grumbled. 

“I wanna check anyways,” Harry said kneeling next to Goldfyre and gently running his hands over his leg watching for any reaction or tenderness. “Well it looks like you are fine, if a bit dirty.” Goldfyre snorted. 

_“Said so.”_

“No need to be snooty,” Harry said with a grin as he stood. It took only a minute to register Totodile into his pokedex, given the pokemon’s tier one level. All starter pokemon were tier level one in their most pre-evolved forms, and his pokedex pinged in approval of ownership. “Alright, well, first stop in Viridian will be the pokecenter,” Harry said. “Totodile will be good in stasis until then and afterwards you can meet your new sister and have that bath and brush I promised, Kyogre knows I could use a good bath myself. Harry quHarry made a quick check of the egg despite knowing that the egg pocket of his backpack was made to keep it safe. Still it never hurt to double check. It was absolutely fine, there was still no movement and certainly no cracks that would indicate it was ready to hatch any time soon. It was likely that the egg wouldn’t hatch for at least a week. Harry felt a sudden mischievousness of Goldfyre and turned towards the puppy pokemon with narrowed eyes before they closed entirely and he turned away to avoid the worst of the mud and sand that sprayed from Goldfyre’s fur as he shook it out like a wet dog. 

“Oh you little shit,” Harry said laughing. The rest of the walk to Viridian was punctuated by Harry chasing after Goldfyre, laughing, Harry occasionally leaping at the golden pokemon who’d dodge and hop around Harry like the puppy his pokemon species was described to be. The pokecenter wasn’t all that busy when Harry and Goldfyre entered the terracotta roofed building, likely because registration day was tomorrow. 

“Hello, how may we help you today?” a male Joy nurse asked as Harry and Goldfyre approached the desk. 

“Hello, I’ve got a pokemon that took a few rough hits, she’s a new capture, a Totodile. Seemed friendly before the battle, but fought pretty hard as well so I don’t know how she’ll react,” Harry said reaching into his pocket for the pokeball that Totodile was in. Handing it over and showing the Joy nurse his ID, Harry let the man know that he was going to check into the Trainer Hotel that made up a portion of the pokecenter. Harry paid for a suite rather than staying in the free communal hostel area or the cheaper option of a single queen bed room, mostly because of the large bathtub that he knew would be in the suite. Returning back to the hospital section of the building Harry sat down in the waiting area. It wasn’t long before another Joy returned with his pokeball. 

“Your Totodile was in fairly decent condition, and didn’t fight our care. She only required a bit of burn spray and a puncture patch, which should be dissolved by tomorrow morning. Light training for twenty-four hours, if your pokemon seems lethargic, refuses food, or the puncture patch hasn’t been absorbed by noon please come back so we can take another look,” the Joy said. 

“Thank-you,” Harry said, taking the pokeball. “I’m happy to know she didn’t take too much damage.” 

“Of course, have a good day,” the Joy said. Harry gave a nod turning to Goldfyre. 

“Up to our room for a bath now?” Harry asked. Goldfyre bounced on his toes.

 _“Brush and bubbles,”_ the pokemon agreed. The suite was decently spacey with a king bed on one wall with a tv hanging on the wall opposite. Tossing his backpack on the bed Harry and Goldfyre took a look in the ensuite bathroom. Taking in the soaking tub and full steam shower Harry grinned, paying a couple hundred extra to stay for a few days was worth it for this bathroom alone. Harry started the water in the tub and Goldfyre happily jumped in. 

“Alright, I’m going to wash you, and dry you off, then take my own shower before we go outside to the yards to brush you. We can meet your new teammate then too,” Harry said rubbing his hand through his partner's golden fur as he used the spray nozzle, making sure he was fully soaked, before adding a bit of shampoo. Goldfyre rumbled happily as Harry scrubbed the dirt and sand out of his hair. Using the nozzle Harry rinsed out Goldfyre’s fur before adding a bit of conditioner to help with the brushing process later. It took two towels to dry Goldfyre enough for Harry to let him out of the bathroom though he still ordered the pokemon to stay off the bed until after he’d been brushed and was fully dry. Harry swiftly took his own shower cleaning himself of the sand and dirt that had stuck to his skin and stayed in his hair. Walking out of the bathroom completely naked Harry dressed in a similar outfit as the one he’d been wearing earlier, only this time his canvas cargo pants were a yellowy tan colored, and his shirt a navy blue. His dirty clothes, and the dirty towels went into the hamper after he checked his pants, complementary laundry a perk of renting a suite. Removing the egg from it’s pocket Harry set it up on the desk, making a small nest-like structure with the coverlet he pulled from the bed. 

Harry left his room behind Fyre, his laptop bag over his shoulder, pokedex tucked into the front pocket. His lab kit was in one hand and Totodile’s pokeball in the other. He’d tucked both a bristle brush for Goldfyre’s short fur and a slicker brush for his longer fur on his tail, chest and belly tuft and crest, into his laptop bag before they’d left the room and they were on their way to the training yards, not to train but because when Harry brushed Goldfyre the loose fur would get everywhere, so it was something best done outside. There was also the matter of introducing Totodile to the prospect of Harry being his trainer and Goldfyre being his teammate. 

There were only three trainers in the training yards and Harry quickly claimed one of the ones with a picnic table close enough to the building to still get the wifi and set his bags on one of the benches. 

“Alright Fyre up,” Harry said, patting the table’s top. Goldfyre hopped up and stood still on all four legs ready for Harry to brush him. Firmly Harry began starting with Fyre’s long hair first. He was so caught up in what he was doing that he didn’t even notice the man who approached him as he finished up Goldfyre’s brushing. 

“He is a beautiful beast,” the man said, causing Harry to start a little. 

“Oh hello,” Harry said, taking in the man that had approached. He was older, mid-thirties at least, dressed in far more formal wear than Harry was used to seeing people wear casually everyday. “This is Goldfyre, and I’m Harry, Harry Oak,” Harry continued as he took in the man. He was handsome in a classical sense, dark hair peppered with cut in a pompadour with a taper fade elevating the businessman look he already had going for him. His beard was shaved to barely there stubble but as it was now at only twelve thirty it already had a slight shadow. His jacket was a dark plum purple, over a shiny black waist coat and similarly dark dress shirt only one shade of black lighter than the waist coat and a plum tie that matched his jacket. Rather than dress pants however, he was wearing instead fitted black leather pants that matched his waist coat, and had no right looking as good as they did on the other man. Harry swallowed. Hard. 

It wasn’t as if he had exactly gone through puberty or a sexuality crisis in his old world, in fact his mind hadn’t even started thinking about what sex was back then. Now however Harry was a proudly gay, who knew his family was accepting of him. He was a twenty-three year old in a fifteen year old’s body, set to turn sixteen in less than a week, and all he could think was, _I want to climb this man like a fucking tree._

“A pleasure to finally meet you. I have read many of your papers, and am quite a fan of you and your father’s work. Your dissertation on trainer pokemon relationships, and the devastation caused by pokemon blackmarkets was intriguing. I gave it much thought,” the man said. If the man’s polite neutral face was handsome, the delighted smile he got when he heard Harry’s name and realized who he was, made Harry involuntarily shiver. “Ah forgive me my impoliteness, allow me to introduce myself. I am Gym Leader Giovanni Sakaki, you can call me Giovanni if you like.” Harry instantly recognized the man’s name much as the man had recognized his and not only because he was a Gym Leader.

Giovanni Sakaki was the man credited with the entire dismantling of Team Rocket, almost six years ago now, ironically around when the dissertation that Harry and his father had written, the one that Giovanni had mentioned, was published, though there were rumors that the reason he’d been able to do it was because he was a high ranking member himself. Harry wasn’t sure what to believe, all he knew for sure was that Kanto’s black market for pokemon had drastically been reduced even if other small criminal groups had attempted to fill the vacancy Team Rocket had left behind, including what many thought was an offshoot of Team Rocket, the annoyance, more than inconvenient or criminal, team known as Team Meowth. Many of the Team Rocket members had been arrested, a few of the higher up members had turned up dead. The common accepted belief was that whomever the leader of Team Rocket was, had had them killed because they could identify him. Again however there were rumors that Giovanni himself had killed them himself so they couldn’t get away, or even darker, because they could identify him. But nothing substantial.

“A pleasure to meet you as well,” Harry said. “I certainly didn’t expect to do so for a while, since you only take challenges from trainers who have five badges or more. I registered as a professional trainer this year. I want to see how well I can actually do training pokemon instead of just learning about them.”

“Well I wish you and your companion, or companions luck,” Giovanni said. “I just came out here to see if there were any promising trainers out to get some last minute training in the yards before the start of the newest season. Would you mind all too much if I watched your training?” 

“I don’t mind, but I won’t be doing anything heavy tonight. I got a new capture on my way into the city from Pallet that I haven’t even attempted to bond with yet, and can’t do anything heavy with for at least twenty-four hours,” Harry said. “Plus I just finished brushing Goldfyre, and gave him a bath before this. I don’t want to have to do that again so soon.” Goldfyre huffed where he had laid down on the table. 

“Like I said earlier, he truly is magnificent. He is male I assume?” Giovanni asked. 

“Yes, he is,” Harry said, patting at Fyre’s head. 

“May I?” Giovanni asked, reaching out his hand towards Harry’s Growlithe. 

“He’s friendly,” Harry confirmed, “And certainly he won’t mind, especially if you scratch just behind his ears.” Giovanni smiled and did just that, pressing one hand to Goldfyre’s back as the other scratched behind his ears. Goldfyre arched and rumbled into the man’s hands.

 _“Keep him?”_ Goldfyre asked. 

“I wish,” Harry whispered low enough for Goldfyre to hear but not Giovanni. 

“May I ask if you’ve looked into a breeding program for him? I know shiny pokemon don’t always have shiny offspring, but it's more likely. A pokemon as aesthetically pleasing as him would go for a pretty penny especially among contest folk,” Giovanni said. 

“I haven’t thought about it. I’d have to discuss it with Fyre here too,” Harry said. 

“Well depending on how long you’re planning on staying in town I have a contact who’s into looking for a shiny breeding male pokemon of the field egg group to breed with his own shiny Pokemon coming into town in about seven days. He’s from Johto but recently moved to Hoenn, looking to breed a pokemon for his daughter, May before she starts her journey on the circuit next fall. The girl isn’t sure if she’s for the League’s gym challenge or for the contest circut and Norman’s trying to give her an advantage just in case,” Giovanni said.

“I booked a room for tonight and the next, I might downgrade to a regular room if I’m staying a week,” Harry said. “But Goldfyre doesn’t seem too displeased that we’re discussing the idea. But maybe that’s just your magic hands.” Harry immediately pinked as he realized the euphemism he’d unintentionally made. 

“I could offer you a room in my home for the week if it doesn’t alarm you?” Giovanni suggested. “My home is quite spacious; it truly wouldn’t be an imposition. With the influx of trainers until after the second week when at least fifty percent of them will have dropped out, all pokemon centers are going to be rather crowded, especially the training fields. I give you permission to use the gym training grounds, whether or not you take the offer to stay in my home.” 

“That’s exceptionally kind of you,” Harry said. “I’m just going to call my father tonight and tell him I’ll be staying here a week. He was planning on flying in to Pewter to spend my sixteenth with me, I’ll just let him know to come here instead. There was the ad on tv about that new restaurant, _Elegance_ opening up here. I know it’s supposed to be expensive but I’ll tell him it’s my treat and take him for dinner there,” Harry continued, a little in his own head. 

“Your sixteenth?” Giovanni said, looking at Harry a little differently. “A big milestone, officially becoming of age. You must forgive me for saying, but I thought you were older.”

“You aren’t the first to say so,” Harry said. “I tend to be more mature than a lot of people my age.”

“That Ph.D of yours and all those papers you’ve either authored or contributed to help as well I’m sure,” Giovanni replied. 

“They certainly do,” Harry said. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to get to meeting my new pokemon before going for some lunch,” Harry said. “Like I said before, you’re welcome to stay but I won’t be doing much.”

“I thank you again. Perhaps I could join you for lunch?” Giovanni asked. 

“I’d like that,” Harry said blushing lightly. “I’m gonna um, just.” Harry awkwardly gestured and Giovanni chuckled. 

“Of course.” Mentally Harry shook his head before grabbing the Totodile’s pokeball and speaking to Goldfyre. 

“Alright Fyre, at the ready, I don’t know how she’s going to react about me being her trainer yet. If he tries to attack I’ll put him back in the ball but she was pretty fast this morning.” Goldfyre grumbled not wanting to stop being petted by Giovanni who had sat at the picnic table, but hopped down nonetheless. Harry pushed the slide button on the front of the pokeball and aimed it’s laser pointer a short distance away before the three second opening delay was up. A red flash and Totodile was on the ground in front of them. Harry gave the pokemon a minute to take in his surroundings before getting down on one knee and softly calling.

“Totodile?”

_“Caught?”_ the pokemon asked looking at Harry. 

“Yes, I’m your trainer now Totodile,” Harry said. Harry knew that he looked just like any trainer introducing themselves to their new pokemon rather than actually answering the pokemon’s question.

_“Trainer!”_ the little pokemon squealed and rushed towards Harry, in obvious joy rather than anger or to harm Harry. 

“Well hello to you too,” Harry said as the pokemon did it’s best to give Harry a hug. Gently Harry patted it’s head before softly extricating it from him. “Well Totodile, would you like to properly meet your team mate instead of just battling him?”

_“Mean bite,_ the pokemon said. 

“I know he bit you pretty hard in your battle earlier, but now that you’re going to be teammates you’ll only battle casually to make each other stronger,” Harry said patting Totodiles head. The pokemon seemed to understand and Harry nodded to Goldfyre who gently pushed his face into Totodiles, rubbing it along the other pokemon’s cheek much like a cat would. 

_“Soft,”_ Totodile said putting his hands into Goldfyre’s fur in order to touch it more. Harry smiled.

“Well I’m glad you guys like each other,” Harry said. “Now Totodile, I’d like to run some tests that would let me learn more about you. We can brainstorm nicknames while we do so, does that sound alright?” Totodile looked confused for a moment but perked up at the thought of a nickname. “Alright Goldfyre, for today I want you to do laps around the training yard. Pace yourself, this one is for stamina not speed. Let me know when you can’t do anymore, I’ll give you a proper rub down,” Harry ordered and Fyre was off. “Alright,” Harry said, reaching out with his hands. “Can I lift you onto the table Totodile?” Totodile walked right into Harry’s arms and Harry lifted the solidly built twenty pound pokemon onto the picnic table. Harry blushed when he realized just how closely Giovanni was watching him, the man still sitting at the picnic table Harry had claimed. 

“Alright,” Harry said. “We’ll start off simple. I’m going to check on how your injury from earlier is doing okay?”

_“Bite?”_ the pokemon asked. Harry ignored the question in favor of gently running his fingers around the puncture patch that had already molded itself to Totodile like melted cling wrap. Noting that Totodile didn’t seem affected by his touch or in pain, Harry turned to his laptop bag and pulled out his computer and tablet.  
“I’m going to use this to scan you, and document your markings, height, weight and a few other things,” Harry said, showing the tablet to Totodile before setting it on the table to enter the passcode into his computer and plug his pokedex into the laptop to connect it. 

While a pokedex was required to be carried by anyone who registered as a professional trainer, Harry’s was a much advanced and exceedingly expensive model. In fact despite his very well off bank account, Harry would never have purchased the device for himself. At six point eight million pokedollars it made even him balk. However, as his father was the designer of the pokedex itself, and Harry the designer of the newest complex program on it, Harry was the lucky owner of one of twenty models world wide. Another was at the Kanto Lab and a few more at various other League labs. The rest were wherever the League deemed them most useful. The model was called MasterDex, because it had every known pokemon, extinct or living listed on it, and allowed edits to entries to be made as long as proof could be scanned and logged. The edits were also credited to the person writing them by the league so bonuses could be accurately paid out to those who made the discoveries. It also allowed for people to make personal team entries that were private. It was the ultimate piece of equipment for scientists and pokemon professors. 

Harry’s program also allowed for the scanning people for injuries, much like the large scanners found in every Pokecenter and Lab as well as an emergency satellite signal that could be deployed if something happened; a literal life saving device. There were two final things that Harry had designed into the device, one of which was a collaboration with several scientists from Devon and Silph, the two companies having teamed up again to help with the creation of one of Harry’s ideas. One was an A.I, not quite sentient but had a good amount of intelligent free will, as much as any extremely logical creation could have but still, and the second a tactile hologram feature that could be used to display properly scanned objects, as well as be edited manually. 

“I need you to stand up tall with your tail out straight and arms like this,” Harry said, showing Totodile how to stand, before picking up the tablet and loading up the scanner. Red lights began their scan and gently Harry directed Totodile to turn slowly so that the scanner could every angle before he had the Totodile take various positions. 

“Alright that’s good arms down,” Harry said. The little Totodile listened rocking back and forth on her toes and heels obviously still quite excited about what was going on and having a trainer. “Tomorrow when you’re fully healed we’ll get a few scans of you in motion as well.” Harry said wirelessly uploading it to the laptop which sent it to the pokedex. 

_“Me!”_ Totodile gasped when a holographic image of her suddenly lit up above the pokedex.

“Yeah girl that’s you,” Harry replied to the joyful pokemon. “Helix tell me what you got,” Harry ordered the Pokedex’s AI System. The system responded back in a rather deep but still crystal clear voice. Harry would have said that the voice had a slight russian accent had he still been his old world but here it was known as Oblivianoan.

“Totodile, the first evolutionary form of the Big Jaw Pokemon species native to the Johto region. International index number 158, this pokemon is registered to Dr. Harry Oak, pokemon professor and registered trainer, and is currently without a nickname. Personal Pokemon Identification Number or P-PIN six-four-nine-zero-two-eight-four.” Harry nodded along as he began removing things from his field bag, setting up a little lab space. 

“This pokemon is approximately two years old, visible identifiers of this are the crimson red coloration of the spiny dorsal plates, which are a coral red color until approximately twenty-two months after hatching. This pokemon is also female as indicated by its lack of a colored chest plate present on males of this species. Though native to the Johto region this pokemon was registered as caught by Dr. Harry Oak on route one in the Kanto region. Totodile is a water type and like others of its typing is known to need more magnesium and B12 than other pokemon types. The height of this pokemon is above the average of its species age at two feet three inches, weight is currently unknown. League defined move set is currently unknown. Egg groups are Monster and Water One. Like others of its kind, water based attacks seem to increase in kind when the pokemon is stressed or injured, an ability named Torrent,” Helix the A.I continued. 

“Entry description,” Harry ordered. 

“While considered small in comparison to many pokemon, it’s jaws are well developed and exceedingly powerful, and capable of extreme crushing force. While considered a Tier One pokemon due to their playfulness rather than predatory instincts, a trainer of a Totodile must be careful as while the pokemon may think it’s just playfully nipping it’s jaws are more powerful than it thinks. When it is scared or angry, often even the best trained Totodile will not hesitate to take a bite out of anything that moves,” Helix answered. “Wild Totodile will often naw on rocks in order to sharpen their teeth, because of this they lose teeth often. Losing teeth is not a problem for Totodile however, as they have up to three rows of teeth in their mouth at any given time. Making it easy for a tooth to replace the lost one by shifting forwards. Totodile do not stop making teeth to replace the once that they lose until shortly before they are to evolve into their species second evolutionary form Croconaw. 

“Open personal Totodile log,” Harry said. 

“Open,” Helix said. 

“Title it with Log Entry One with the date please,” Harry said. 

“Done.”

“Copy scan information on pokemon with the P-PIN six-four-nine-zero-two-eight-four to this file.”

“Commencing. Complete.” 

“Alright, Totodile up on this scale here,” Harry directed the blue pokemon onto a device that honestly looked like a mat of some sort rather than a scale. It was far lighter weight than a regular scale and could take the full weight of even a Wailord should it ever become necessary. “Weight of Totodile recorded at 26.42 pounds,” Harry said to Helix. 

“Recording. Complete.” 

“Alright you can step off,” Harry told the Totodile rolling up the scale and putting it back in his lab bag. Harry put on a pair of disposable gloves and then ripped open a sealed package that held a long swab and sealable container. Taking the swab Harry turned to the blue pokemon. “Alright, open up, I have to swab your cheek, please do not bite down, okay?” Harry asked. 

_“No bite,”_ Totodile said with a nod, and opened her mouth wide. Quickly, Harry swabbed the inside of Totodile’s white cheek, quickly putting the swab into the sealable container before it could be contaminated. Doing a quick visual check of Totodile’s teeth Harry let the pokemon know she could close her mouth. 

“First thing once we’re done here is to put that everstone on you. The collar I have it set in now should fit you, but I need at least one badge before you can evolve, at least if you want to stay with me after you evolve,” Harry said. The Totodile nodded so fast she looked for a moment as though she was a bobble head. Harry chuckled. “Alright,” Harry said, picking up a rather long if really thin needle. “This is the last thing until tomorrow okay? We’ll get you that everstone and then lunch after I finish but you’ll be all done.” Harry showed Totodile the needle. “I’m going to poke this into your shoulder, it’ll hurt a little but I’ll be quick and it’s for a good reason I promise, will you let me?” Harry asked. Totodile’s eyes were wide as she looked at harry. She didn’t move, or say anything for a good several moments before slowly she turned giving Harry her side and said.

_“Quick poke,”_ she said quietly. 

“Alright, thank-you,” Harry said. “It’ll be quick I promise.” He set the needle down and picked up his little squeeze bottle of rubbing alcohol and a single cotton pad, cleaning the spot he was going to use quickly and efficiently. He paused a minute before removing his gloves and digging into one of the pockets of his laptop bag. Finding what he was looking for Harry showed it to Totodile. 

“Do you wanna hold this while I do the poke?” Harry asked. Totodile grabbed the stuffed jigglypuff and clutched it close. “I’m glad you like it.” Harry grabbed a new pair of gloves before picking up the needle again. Removing the protective cap he brought it to the spot on Totodile’s arm that he’d prepared. With a quick poke Harry pushed the needle in the spot just between the pokemon’s two leather armor plates. Totodile growl whimpered slightly but didn’t move as Harry filled three vials with blood. Finished, Harry removed the needle and swiftly taped a cotton pad over the needle wound to catch any blood that might seep out. 

“All done,” Harry said. “You did so well!” Totodile leapt for Harry stuffed pokemon in one hand as she wrapped her little arms around his neck best she could without her much bigger head getting in the way. Harry leaned into her hug and wrapped his own arms around her. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Giovanni watching him with a soft smile on his face. Releasing Totodile with a soft head pat Harry called for Goldfyre who was still doing laps around the training yard with a soft steady loap. 

“Alright, so Totodile needs a nickname,” Harry said to Totodile and Goldfyre. “And I think I thought of one. At first I thought Toto, a name for a little dog in a story I once read but I don’t think it fits you sweet girl.” Totodile nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah didn;t think so,” Harry said. “But then I thought of another character from the same story, the main character in fact. What do you guys think of Dorothy?” Totodile bounced. 

_“Me Dorothy!”_ Dorothy sang dancing around while Goldfyre bounced. 

“I’m glad you guys like it,” Harry said. “Now I have a few things to finish a few things and then we’ll get some lunch. For now I’m going to set you guy’s to a training game together. Nothing too hard, since Dorothy can’t do anything too rough until she’s fully healed, so,” Harry began detailing the exercise he wanted them to undertake. Basically he was letting Dorothy work on her stealth and speed while Goldfyre worked on his senses. Goldfyre lay on the ground eyes closed while Dorothy tried to be quiet enough to sneak up on him and jump on him. If Goldfyre heard or smelled her before she managed to leap on him, he was to leap away. Hopefully that would allow them both to develop some techniques, Dorothy to learn how to attack elusively, especially against pokemon who knew how to use protect shields, as trainers generally only ordered their pokemon to use them if they thought a hard attack was going to hit, and for Goldfyre it was to learn to trust more than just his eyesight, especially with how easily many pokemon found using Sand Attack. 

“You know,” Giovanni said, speaking for the first time in half an hour, surprising Harry as he turned around. “Perhaps, so that you do not feel the need to rush through the logging and testing of your new pokemon’s samples, I could pick up some lunch for us to share, and of course some for companions as well. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind if I brought one of my own companions as well.”

“Of course I wouldn’t mind, just a moment I have a bit of cash on me,” Harry said, reaching for his pokedex, and the wallet that made up it’s case. Before he could reach it however a hand clamped around his wrist, not hard but stopping him nonetheless, and causing Harry to gasp in surprise. 

“My treat,” the older man said, gripping Harry’s wrist loosely before letting it go. “After all, you’ve allowed me to watch your work, it’s only right that I give you something in return.” Harry swallowed. Honestly he was trying his hardest not to read into the man’s actions. He was probably just being polite, given that he’d probably only come over because of Goldfyre. It was Harry’s own wishful thinking that made him feel as though Giovanni had held his wrist for a few moments longer than necessary. 

“Thank-you,” Harry said sure his cheeks were a flaming red. 

“Do you have a favored food?” Giovanni asked, standing.

“You’re the one paying,” Harry protested, blushing even brighter when Giovanni spoke again. 

“Indulge me darling.”

“I, uh,” Harry stuttered. “I like um, Johtoen food.” 

“Perfect,” Giovanni said. “I’ll be back soon.” Harry watched as the man left unable to take his eyes off the wide shoulders of the man as he strode away. Finally he was out of sight and Harry turned to look at his pokemon, who should have been playing the game he’d set them too but were watching him instead. He sighed. 

“If you are done playing can you both watch my things? I want to go check on the egg before he gets back,” Harry asked, biting back his original more sarcastic question of what they thought they were looking at. It wasn’t their fault he was so high strung and lusting after a man that was at the minimum at least twice his age. Both of his pokemon nodded, Goldfyre stretching out to lay at the foot of the table, Dorothy deciding to use the opportunity to run her little hands through his soft fur now that he was no longer leaping away. Harry could hear the happy rumbles of Fyre even as he walked away. Pulling his phone out of his pocket Harry dialed his father’s number deciding to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

“Hello, Harry,” his dad answered. “Is something wrong?”

“Hello Dad,” Harry replied with a chuckle, “Nothing like that, just a bit of a change of plans. I’m planning on staying here in Viridian for a week instead of getting straight to Pewter. An opportunity came up, and I have a place to stay, so how would you like to go to ‘Elegance’ for dinner when you come up on friday? My treat?” 

“Well, I suppose I can’t say no,” his father said with a bit of humor. “What kind of opportunity came up?” 

“Well I met the gym leader here, Giovanni Sakaki, in the training yards. He liked the look of Goldfyre and mentioned knowing someone who is looking for a shiny breeding male of the field egg group, that’s going to be coming to visit Viridian in a week. Goldfyre didn’t seem to mind us talking about it and nowhere does it say I have to race through finishing the League’s gym challenge,” Harry said, as he swiped his keycard to get into his room holding his phone to his ear with his shoulder. “Giovanni actually offered me a room to stay and access to the Gym’s training grounds since after tomorrow Pokecenters will be overfull and it will be hell to try and book training time on the public grounds.” There was a bit of silence on the other end of the phone, as Harry entered his room. His father was talking again by the time Harry had gathered up the egg in one arm and had grabbed the everstone collar from his bag in the other, phone once again held by his shoulder. He hadn’t had a chance to scan the egg into his pokedex yesterday and it would be good to do it now. 

“That was,” his father began obviously picking his words, “Polite of Giovanni. I’ve not had many personal interactions with the man though I've heard some stories. I know you’re about to be of age and Giovanni is a League employee as a Gym Leader, but be careful? He’s a businessman as well to my knowledge, has shares in many companies as well as his own real estate business, just be attentive to any deals or contracts you make with him. He has a reputation for being absolutely ruthless.”

“Of course,” Harry said. “Besides I wouldn’t be making the Breeding Contract for Goldfyre with him but with his friend, but I’ll be careful nonetheless Dad,” Harry said. “Anyways I gotta get going. Goldfyre, and Dorothy, my new pokemon, are watching my things in the training yards. You should check out my newest team member dad. I found a Totodile on Route One!”

“I’ll check out the entry tonight,” his dad said with a chuckle at Harry’s exuberance. “Call again soon?”

“Of course,” Harry said. “Bye Dad. Love you.”

“Love you too son, bye,” his dad said before the phone call ended. Harry took the elevator down and was back at the picnic table in minutes. Nothing had been touched and Goldfyre was clearly asleep only waking briefly to confirm that it was in fact Harry approaching. Dorothy had gone to sleep too, burrowed into the side of Goldfyre’s soft warm fur. The sight caused Harry to smile, and though he knew that not every pokemon he caught would be as friendly with the rest of the team or with him being their trainer, it made him even more excited for the future. 

Notwithstanding he still had a few things he wanted to do before Giovanni returned with lunch. Setting the egg down gently in his open and empty laptop bag, Harry swiftly secured the collar on Dorothy comfortably before he went back to finishing Dorothy’s entry. Using the little machine he carried with him everywhere he did a comprehensive metabolic panel using the first vial of blood logging the results and noting that he needed to add a little magnesium to Dorothy’s diet. Her levels were a little low for a water pokemon of her age and size. Harry knew that other trainers certainly didn’t go to this level of understanding their team but Harry couldn’t help it. He was a Pokemon Professor first. 

The second test was for CRP or C-Reactive Protein, so that Harry could know the level of inflammation in the body. Given that Dorothy had been recently injured Harry expected a slightly higher number and was pleasantly surprised it was only slightly elevated meaning she likely had no infection despite the injury. The final test was an INR to check how well Dorothy’s blood clotted. As a Water type pokemon this was very important as she was at a higher risk for bleeding out due to her Typing generally having a lower clotting tendency. Knowing the exact rate would allow Harry to treat her better in the field if it ever came to it. 

Cleaning up the machine and setting the vials aside for disposal Harry set up his miniature thermal cycler prepping it so he could test Dorothy’s DNA, given she was a Totodile, at least one of her parents was a Totodile but that didn’t mean both were. The machine would need at least twenty minutes to produce results, so as soon as it began its work Harry began his examination of the egg logging everything he found. Tomorrow once Dorothy was given the all clear he’d go through her League known Moveset, and record that. 

Harry was just finishing putting the last of his equipment away, not even having looked at Dorothy’s DNA results, which had been wirelessly sent to his tablet, yet, when Giovanni returned. He’d already brought the blood vials and the other biohazardous waste like the needle into the hospital portion of the Pokecenter for proper disposal. He had just zipped up his lab bag when Goldfyre was suddenly on his feet dislodging a now slightly pissy Dorothy. 

Looking up Harry saw Giovanni walking towards the picnic table several wooden bamboo boxes in his hands, with air steaming warmly from them. A beautiful and sleek Persian walked gracefully beside him, ruby colored gem on her forehead glinting brightly. Three men dressed in butler uniforms trailed behind him carrying silver bowls, likely a meal for the pokemon. 

“You have a pokemon egg?” Giovanni said as he set the boxes down on the picnic table. 

“Yes,” Harry said. “A Dragonite at the lab abandoned it, likely for being the smallest of her clutch.” 

“Fascinating, it’s entire evolutionary line is considered a rare species no?” Giovanni asked.

“Yes, it is,” Harry replied, “And I must say this smells delicious and not at all like take out.”

“I must confess I perhaps went overboard. I called my chef’s and had them prepare some food on my walk home. He even was willing to cater to your pokemon’s needs instead of them eating simple pokefood. Wishiwashi meat for the handsome Goldfyre and my own Persian and a mixture of Skrelp meat and pineapple for young Dorothy. I hope that’s acceptable?” Giovanni asked. 

“Of course,” Harry said eyes wide. Wishiwashi was a fish pokemon that was hunted for its meat in Alola, and because it often swam in large schools, could be dangerous to acquire, it was one of the most expensive pokemon meats for this fact alone, for Giovanni to feel so comfortable feeding it to pokemon without even a worry towards expense meant that the man was even more wealthy than Harry had thought. He’d known the man had money of course but still this was obscene. Harry shifted his laptop and his bags to one side of the table as Giovanni set up the second side for them to dine. The butler dressed men quickly set the food for each pokemon in front of them and the happy growls and purrs of the three pokemon permeated the air, as the men stepped back far enough out of ear shot to give an illusion of privacy. 

“Here,” Giovanni said, passing Harry a set of chopsticks as well as a soup spoon and a small bowl. “I hope you don’t mind eating family style?” he asked as he slid the lids off of each box. 

“Not at all,” Harry replied. “It all smells delicious and looks very appetizing.” Giovanni smiled. 

“Well my chef did go all out. I do hope you like it,” Giovanni said. 

“In the name of honesty and all, I’m not sure I recognize most of these dishes, at least in such um, elevated forms,” Harry confessed blushing again. 

“Not a worry,” Giovanni assured. “In this container we have Fragrant Krabby Rice with Vegetable Dumplings as well as Wonton soup, in this one, Roasted Ducklett, garlic crepes as well as scallion pancakes, and in this final container Honey Walnut noodles, with Orange Chicken and Steamed Vegetables.”

“You’ll have to give your chef my thank’s,” Harry said, delicately using his chopsticks to gather up some fragrant rice and a thinly sliced piece of Roasted Ducklett. 

“I most certainly will,” Giovanni said, filling up his own bowl. They ate quietly Harry blushing much of the time as everytime he looked towards Giovanni the man seemed to be watching him. 

“Why are you doing that?” Harry asked, after the fourth time he looked up only to see the man watching him. Goldfyre and Dorothy had gone back to sleep, ignoring Giovannni’s Persian where she lay at the man’s feet. 

“Doing what?” Giovanni asked innocently. 

“You’re watching me,” Harry said, shifting slightly.

“My apologies,” Giovanni said smiling at Harry, “It was difficult to control myself. I wanted to see how you were enjoying the meal.” 

“Oh, um, it tastes as delicious as it looks,” Harry said. “I liked it a lot, I’m afraid you brought far too much however, I can’t eat another bite.”

“Perhaps you would take the leftovers for yourself tomorrow?” Giovanni asked. “Do you have a mini fridge in your room?.”

“I didn’t see one but I wasn’t looking, I’m sure I do though. I’m staying in one of the suites,” Harry said. 

“An enjoyer of comfort then?” Giovanni asked. Harry nodded. 

“I can rough it with the best of them, and am no stranger to sleeping in less than ideal places but I love a soft bed when I can get one,” Harry admitted. 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Giovanni said, closing the bamboo boxes that held the food. Harry blushed at the unintentional innuendo from the other man, and instead started busying himself with helping clean up so he could return to recording Dorothy’s genetics. 

“Thank you again for the late lunch,” Harry said once they had finished cleaning up. The men in butler uniforms had gathered up the dishes used for the pokemon food, as well asd Giovanni and Harry’s dirty bowls and utensils, but for a set of chopsticks left for Harry to use when he ate the leftovers tomorrow. 

“Thank-you for agreeing to spend it with me,” Giovanni said. “May I ask about your research? Have you found anything interesting concerning your newest pokemon?”

“Nothing concerning, or all that interesting yet, though I haven’t looked at her genetic results yet. Low magnesium so the dinner today will be helpful in that regard,” Harry said picking up his tablet.

“Oh?” Giovanni questioned. 

“Pineapple has about twelve millegrams of magnesium per about a hundred grams, but Skrelp, they’re known for their high magnesium, it’s why they’re so often used to make vitamins,” Harry answered. “Oh!” Harry exclaimed. “That’s why you knew Ice Fang already.” Giovanni circled around the table to look at what Harry was seeing, only to be confused at the seemingly nonsensical information. 

“I am clearly out of my depth, what are you looking at,” Giovanni asked leaning over Harry’s shoulder. Harry swallowed nervously before answering. 

“This is Dorothy’s genetic results, you can separate it into two strings by removing the one parent we know about, the Totodile. In this case the matriarchal DNA shown by the markers here, and here. It’s the male DNA that explains her affinity for ice moves at such a young age,” Harry said. 

“You know what pokemon her sire’s DNA is from just by looking at it?” Giovanni asked. 

“I wish,” Harry laughed, “No, but over the years me and my father have tested and tagged the DNA of every pokemon we could get our hands on. I simply used a recognition search and voila.” 

“So?” Giovanni asked, his breath tickling Harry’s ear. “What was her father?”

“Of the Sea Lion Pokemon Line, but not a match to the Seel, so Dewgong,” Harry said, trying not to fidget with the other man so close. “We’ve never actually recorded Dewgong, DNA, no ones brought one in, but we had Seel DNA, so” Harry trailed off. 

“An exceedingly intelligent program. Tell me, Harry, were you one of it’s developers?” Giovanni asked, pulling away finally, allowing Harry to breath more fully. 

“I had input,” Harry answered elusively. 

“Perhaps, I could ask of you a favor?” Giovanni asked. 

“Of course!” Harry exclaimed. 

“My Persian,” Giovanni explained, said animal hand begun winding itself around Giovanni’s legs, “Her mother was Persian, at least according to what she herself has told me but she has no idea who her father is, a curiosity as like many psychic pokemon she can telepathically speak despite her normal typing. Would you be able to see for us?” 

“I would,” Harry said. “A long as Persian is willing.” 

“I have long been curious of my origins, especially as I was born Persian rather than as a Meowth, an uncommon phenomenon according to humans,” Persian’s telepathic voice surprised Harry who had not heard her speak before and hadn’t expected the normal type pokemon to be able to speak. 

“Alright then, just give me a minute to set things up,” Harry said. He worked swiftly setting up his machines. Putting on yet a new pair of gloves, Harry broke open the packaging of the swab sample collector and turned to Persian. “I need you to open your mouth wide, and please don’t bite me, I need a cheek swab.” 

“Of course,” Persian purred. Harry swiftly took the sample, letting the sleek catlike pokemon know she could close her jaw. DNA sample running he let them know it could take up to ten minutes and removed his gloves, so he could gently scratch behind Persian’s ears. She purred and groaned happily giving into Harry’s attentions. Giovanni sat beside Harry leaning over to give his pokemon a few scratches under the chin. 

“Looks like I’m not the only one with magic hands,” Giovanni said, and Harry blushed vibrantly. The silence around them stretched on, and Harry wasn’t sure if it was truly awkward or if it was just his nerves, but he was thankful when his tablet beeped. 

“Alright it’s finished,” Harry said. “Let’s take a look.” Giovanni was once again over Harry’s shoulder as Harry worked dually on his tablet and computer. “Okay see here,” Harry said pointing, “That’s the matriarchal DNA, so we’re going to remove that from the sequence and run the other DNA for a match.” Harry’s computer beeped and Harry frowned. “We don’t have a complete match,” Harry said, “but the partial match comes to an Eevee. Going by your psychic abilities it’s likely that your father was an Espeon, do either of you mind if I save and log this information?” Harry asked. 

“Not at all,” Giovanni said, pulling away. Once more Harry cleaned up and put his equipment away, before putting his computer and . 

“I’ll have to give the trash to the nurses for proper disposal but you have my assurances it will be properly destroyed,” Harry told the man when all that was left after clean up was the used sample. 

“Thank-you,” Giovanni said. “Both for having lunch with me and for using your supplies to tell me what Persain’s sire was. I do have one last question however. If Persian was to have a clutch would their matriarchal DNA not have both Persian and Espeon DNA?” 

“One of the mysteries of Pokemon,” Harry said. “Unlike with humans who have whole genome pools, pokemon seem to have a much more rigid structure. It's part of the reason that despite the fact that Persian has two different pokemon DNA’s she is still clearly a Persian. Yes she has a few inherited things from her father but nothing physical. It's like the study of kinesiology and physiology. Kinesiology is the study of movement, most specifically of the muscular and skeletal systems, while physiology is the study of normal function, and focuses on any system in the body. They are both similar but yet not the same, similar to a Persian and Espeon, both being of the same egg group but being clearly different pokemon of different typing.”

“I’m following but I’m not sure I’m understanding,” Giovanni said. 

“It is rather difficult to explain but I’ll try my best,” Harry said. “Persian can only pass on the DNA of a Persian because that is the pokemon that she physically is. Now that’s not to say that the Espeon DNA that she has won’t influence her clutch but it won’t physically show up. Her offspring may perhaps be more intelligent than a regular Persian should they be Persian or perhaps able to speak telepathically like her. They’d also likely show a slight natural ability for psychic type moves than a regular Persian would. The other thing of note, is that pokemon of a single clutch will be the same species. That means should Persian have a clutch with say Goldfyre here, if one of the clutch was a Growlithe than all of the clutch would be of the same species, meaning Growlithe or Arcanine, though likely Growlithe. Most breeders already know this so if you do seek to breed your Persian they’ll already know.”

“That makes sense, I’m afraid I’m not seeking to breed her, nor do I think she has any inclination towards motherhood,” Giovanni said. Persian didn’t answer but gave a look that could easily be translated to _try it and die._ “Well unfortunately I must leave, I have to double check on the pokemon meant for the trainers who won the lottery tomorrow.”

“Viridian does it on a lottery system?” Harry asked, looking confused.

“There are criteria to enter the lottery,” Giovanni said. “An entrant cannot already have a battling pokemon in the family, because otherwise they can simply use the family pokemon to go catch one for themselves, or rather have a family member do it for them. They have to have passed with a minimum of eighty percent the Standard Poke Tests, they have to be at least twelve, and they cannot have median household income of over ninety thousand pokedollars yearly, otherwise their parents can afford to buy them a starter. Otherwise it's a pure lottery. We only have so many starter level pokemon to give out per season. This year I have two Squirtle, a Bulbasoar, and three each of Pidgey and Ratatta but there were twelve lottery entrants so unfortunately three of them won’t be getting pokemon.”

“That sucks,” Harry said. “It's the things that make Pallet so great for starting trainers I suppose. It’s a small town, and the Pokelab is right there allowing for a larger amount of tier one pokemon to be given out since they’re already there,” Harry said. “Is it possible for people to donate starter pokemon to the lottery?” Harry asked. 

“Yes, that’s how we got the Rattata and Pidgeys actually,” Giovanni answered. “Again I wish I could stay.”

“It’s not a problem, I should get going as well,” Harry said, and with that they parted ways. Harry carried his bags, the leftover food and the pokemon egg up to his room Goldfyre and Dorthey following behind. He had to set both the food and the egg down on the floor in order to open the door but quick enough everything was in the room. He did indeed have a mini fridge and packed the food away for tonight and tomorrow morning before setting the egg back into the makeshift nest he’d made on the desk earlier. For a moment Harry flopped onto the bed but he couldn’t rest or close his eyes without thinking about the three people who were going to be disappointed tomorrow. With a sigh he sat up and looked towards Goldfyre and Dorothy who were sunning themselves on the patch of rug warmed by the sunlight streaming in from the window. 

“Dorothy,’ Harry said, pulling out the pokemon’s pokeball. “I’m going outside the city and you can’t battle yet so I’m putting you back into your ball ‘k?” Harry said. The little pokemon nodded and Harry pushed the return button. WIth a flash of red she dematerialized. Grabbing only his pokedex, with it’s wallet, as well as six pokeballs that he stuffed into his pockets on the opposite pant leg that he put Dorothy’s, Harry called for Goldfyre to come. They had pokemon to catch and dreams to fulfill


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.maptoglobe.com/HyrbMyvP8
> 
> This is the map I’m using of all the regions if anyone wants a visual

Before heading out to route twenty-two to catch a few pokemon to provide starters for all of those who were going to lose out in the lottery if he didn’t catch them some by tomorrow, Harry headed to the Pokemart department store to pick up a few supplies, namely pokeballs, along with a few supplies he’d be needing for when his egg finally hatched. Those he had delivered to the Pokecenter for him to pick up from the front desk of the hotel portion, later.

“Alright Goldfyre,” Harry said as they took the western road out of town. Harry wasn’t planning on them going very far, and had purchased one of the highest quality fishing rods while he was at the Pokemart. He figured that it would be useful on his travels, as well as today. Less than ten minutes after leaving the city's limits Harry was set up on the edge of a small lake that could barely be called more than a pond. 

Growlithe was sitting beside Harry ready if Harry managed to catch anything. It didn’t take long, about five minutes before there was a tug on Harry’s fishing rod. Goldfyre was immediately on his feet in battle position. Harry stood and readied himself as he began reeling in, only to duck as the Goldeen shot up out of the water horn aimed directly at Harry. Harry ducked as he pulled the rod as hard as he could, making Goldeen fly up even farther on shore. Goldfyre was quick to pounce on the fish, keeping it from getting back into the water. It tried to wiggle around to stab Goldfyre with it’s horn but Goldfire simply pushed a paw to the side of it’s head pushing it back down. Harry pulled out a pokeball and walked forward waiting for the Goldfish Pokemon to pass out. 

A ping and a red flash and Goldeen was caught a moment later. Harry got ready to cast again but before he could two Mankey swung from the trees and landed on the ground with angry grunting howls, in challenge. 

“Shit,” Harry said. “Goldfyre cover the ground with Ember now.” Goldfyre was quick to obey covering the ground with ember as Harry called out Dorothy. “Dorothy, I don’t want you to fight but if the fire gets out of control keep it from reaching the trees okay?” Harry ordered. Dorothy nodded looking serious, as she planted her feet in a ready stance. Both to the Mankey’s made noises like they were laughing and danced around, Harry could see the cruel looks in their eyes and quickly shouted. “Don’t fall for it, it’s a Taunt.” Goldfyre growled and Dorothy shifted uneasily. “Flame Wheel, as big as you can, Dorothy will cover the forest. Burn them so they can’t fight well, this isn’t a fair fight so we aren’t going to fight fair. We’re going to fight ugly.” Goldfyre growled, powering up. 

_“Fight ugly,”_ The Growlithe shouted as he released his flame, a billowing spinning circle of it that slammed into one of the Mankey’s and grazed the other. The first was knocked out spinning into a tree, Dorothy quickly shot a Water Gun in it’s direction putting out the little fire that had started around it. The second Mankey opened its mouth and Screeched, before double kicking Goldfyre twice in the ribs. Harry slammed his hands over his ears. He hated that fucking attack for all that it was effective, at ensuring he couldn’t give his pokemon verbal cues. One hand on Dorothy so that she knew not to attack, Harry signaled to Goldfyre, something they had developed when Harry had learned sign language to work with a deaf lab aid. Goldfyre glanced at Harry getting back on his feet and likely said something though Harry was unable to hear it over the ringing in his ears before a stream of flame hit the last Mankey head on. Thankfully it was all that was needed and the Mankey passed out, albeit with several burns. 

“Well,” Harry said when the ringing stopped. “At least we got what we needed.” Harry tossed two more pokeballs leaving them on the ground after they pinged with successful captures, while he collapsed his fishing rod down and clipped it to his pants. Picking the two pokeballs, Harry praised and then recalled Goldfyre so he didn’t hurt his ribs any further before picking up Dorothy. 

“That was exciting wasn’t it,” Harry asked the big Jaw pokemon who nodded and clambered from Harry’s arms up onto his shoulders. Harry shifted causing Dorothy to grasp Harry’s hair where his flat hat didn’t cover. Harry hissed. “Gentle Dorothy,” Harry said, wincing.

 _“Oops ouchy,”_ Dorothy said gently patting Harry’s hair where she pulled. Harry walked into town Dorothy riding on his shoulder. First stop was the Pokecenter. It was a bit busier in the afternoon, than it had been this morning but Harry was helped swiftly. 

“The Growlithe is friendly, but three of those are new captures, two Mankey’s and a Goldeen, they aren’t registered. I’m planning on donating them to the Viridian Lottery for this year's League registration,” Harry told Joy who took his pokeballs.

“We can register them into the lotto here if you’d like,” the Joy said, flicking his pink bangs from his forehead with a slight jerk of his head. 

“Yeah that would be perfect,” Harry said. “Note of warning, those Mankey’s attacked without provocation, I know they’re tier one but they seem to have slightly violent natures.” 

“Thanks for the warning, we’ll have at least one extra Chansey on hand in case we need her Sing them to sleep,” the man said. It was only five minutes before Harry was called back up to the desk to pick up Goldfyre.

“Question,” the Joy said, leaning onto the counter. “Is there any chance I can take you out tonight? There’s a movie on at the theater I’ve been meaning to see.” Harry smiled and bit his lip. 

“Room 417, pick me up at seven?” Harry asked, maybe a date with someone a little more his age would make him forget all about the older man who was way too handsome for his own good. Especially since he was going to be staying at the man’s house for a week starting tomorrow. 

“It’s a date,” the nurse said. “Names Jack, can I get yours?”

“Harry,” Harry answered with a smile, passing Harry Goldfyre’s pokeball back. 

“He had a broken rib, so we stuck him in the recovery machine, should be good to go. We’ll get those other three fixed up and ready for tomorrow's lotto,” Jack said. 

“Thanks again, see you tonight,” Harry said. 

The date went decently, Harry taking another shower beforehand and in an effort to look nice, did his hair up in a fishtail milkmaid braid, despite how much more feminine it made him look. There was nothing more than a few kisses and a little bit of petting but nothing too hot and heavy. Jack had been gentlemanly enough to walk Harry back up to his room and despite the very convincing attempt at getting into Harry’s room by kissing him breathless, Harry ended up not offering the nurse a nightcap. 

Goldfyre was happy to be let out of his pokeball and swiftly clambered onto the bed, before Harry could even let Dorothy out as well. Harry had to lift Dorothy onto the bed as she he didn’t want her jumping around to much but by the time Harry had finished changing into pajamas, both pokemon were sleeping, Dorothy with her entire body on one of the pillows and Goldfyre stretched out along the length of the bed on the same side. Harry smiled softly and picked up the egg out of the nest on the desk and set it gently in between the two pillows at the top of the bed, carefully clambering in himself. Snapping a quick picture and texting it to his father, Harry set his alarm, plugged in his phone and went to sleep.

At quarter to six his alarm began chiming, and Harry couldn’t help but hit snooze. FIfteen minutes later when it went off again Harry groaned as he slid out of the bed, heading to the bathroom for a piss. When he returned Goldfyre was up and ready to go, while Dororthy just looked up at him blearily. 

“I take it you don’t want to join our run?” Harry asked as he swiftly changed his pajamas for a pair of joggers, and slid on a sweatshirt, along with his waist belt for his water and phone to sit. His hair he drew up into a high bun before sliding on his pair of runners, noting that he should pick up a new pair soon, as these ones were getting worn. 

_“Sleepy,”_ Dorothy said burrowing back down into the pillow. 

“Well you can either come with me or back into your pokeball,” Harry said. “Hotel rules are that pokemon can’t be outside of their pokeball without supervision inside the Hotel rooms.” Dorothy grumbled, and rolled herself off the bed and waddle walked lethargically to the desk where her pokeball sat and looked up at Harry who snorted and pushed the return button putting her into her pokeball. 

“Wonder how she’s gonna like running in training later,” Harry said to Goldfyre who gave a grumbling chuckle as Harry put on his headphones and clicked on some music on his phone, and grabbed his water bottle and swiftly filled it in the sink. Harry stopped to stretch for a minute or two just outside the Pokecenter before Harry was off on a quick paced jog, Goldfyre easily keeping up. Viridian was quiet at the early hour and Harry saw only one other person just getting up during his entire run, taking a path that circled around the smaller city. He got back to the Pokecenter forty-five minutes after leaving, sweaty and thirsty, he drank the last of his water deeply, before heading up to his rooms for a shower.

The Pokecenter was quiet though Harry could see that a Joy manned the medical desk, reading from a magazine, since there was no one to currently help. Another person manned the concierge desk but no one else seemed to be up yet, so Harry and Growlithe rode the elevator up alone. As he always did after their runs Harry gave Goldfyre a quick rub down with a warm damp towel before he hopped into the shower himself and got ready for the day. Rather than heading down for the complimentary breakfast Harry ate the rest of leftover Johtoen food, letting Dorothy out of her pokeball to feed both her and Goldfyre. Afterwards Harry packed everything up. Since he’d be staying with Giovanni, for the next week, he may as well bring all his things to the Gym training grounds. That way he could check out of the room now and get a refund for tonight. 

Taking care of business Harry headed to the gym, arriving at about quarter after eight, shortly after it’s doors opened for the day. Harry wanted to get a bit of training in before the Official League Registration began. Unlike in Pallet Town where Registration would happen at the Lab and rarely with more than two or three trainers a year at most, often only one if that, registration, even in a small city like Viridian would have fifty plus people or more, not to mention the lottery event. It also was held at the gym, so eventually Harry would have to clear out of the training area where new trainer and starter pokemon introductions would occur. 

Thankfully Giovanni had already asked the gym employee’s to show him to the gym trainer lockers so he could store his things. He left the locker room carrying Dorothy and Goldfyre’s pokeballs in his pockets despite the fact that Goldfyre was walking beside him, and his pokedex so that he could log Dorothy’s league moves and techniques. Tossing out Dorothy’s pokeball he let the Big Jaw Pokemon out, checking the puncture patch and seeing that it had already been absorbed and his girl was fully healed. 

“Goldfyre start with leaps today, twenty up high, twenty forward, twenty each side and twenty back. Try to push your fire power into them. We might finally manage to make a fire bomb attack by combining Bounce and your Pyrokinesis,” Harry ordered before turning to Dorothy. “We’re going to go through your league move set and then we’ll work on new techniques. I already know you can use Bite, Water Gun and Ice Fang, but let’s start with the basics,” Harry said, logging those three moves under Dorothy’s name in the pokedex. “Leer for me darling.” Dorothy leveled a glare with just the hint of fang, her eyes glinting a red that made Harry shiver. “Good, good. Alright, see that cement block?” Harry pointed to the rather beat up block on the side of the training yard. “Scratch on it please.” Harry clicked a few more things on the pokedex, and pulled out a set of ear plugs from his pocket and put them in. “Goldfyre down and cover,” Harry warned after Dorothy completed Scratch, gouging the cement block. “Alright Dorothy, Rage and then break.” 

Even through the ear plugs Harry could hear Dorothy’s roar and winced at the harsh red light that coated Dorothy’s body, as her Rage built up. With no little speed she launched herself at the cement brick shattering it causing both Harry and Goldfyre to duck for cover behind posts. 

“Alright Dorothy, lets just sit down for a while ‘k?” Harry said peeking out from behind the post to see Dorothy looking a little confused standing in the center of what was left of the cement block. She plopped down on her butt still looking confused but aware enough to understand. Harry dug into one of his pockets pulling out a small packet of dried berry pieces, as he approached Dorothy, a mix of Oran, Pecha and Sitrius. It was a perfect mix for humans and pokemon. Goldfyre came sniffing for a few pieces when Harry fed Dorothy a few, before going back to complete his leaps. 

I took twenty minutes for Dorothy to visibly be less confused and the exhausted lethargy to leave her. Time in which Harry had set Goldfyre to gathering all the concrete pieces and spalling them with his Flamethrower attack, and Harry set himself to lifting the bigger pieces of cement up and carrying them over to the area of the training yard that had dirt flooring so that Goldfyre would be less likely to set the building on fire. 

Harry and Dorothy went through the rest of the League moves she knew, Crunch , Chip Away and Slash, before Harry set her to using Water gun directly on the packed dirt ground, drilling down, trying to make it stronger, into a Hydro Pump attack. While both Dorothy and Goldfyre were set to their training regime, Harry began his own, first with lower body work starting with fifteen squats, then fifteen lunges on each leg, moving on to his core with a front plank and then side planks, followed by the simple looking bird dogs and push ups, before he had both pokemon running suicide sprints with him. It was gone eleven o’clock when Harry called for their training to be finished, for the morning. 

Returning Dorothy to her pokeball Harry hit the gym showers, before heading out to find an early lunch. Lines of young hopefuls, ready to register as League Trainers, had already begun gathering outside the gym where tables had been set up along with a small stage where the lottery draw was to be held. Harry passed them with nary a word intent on finding himself some food. Some of the young trainers pointed at Harry and watched him leave, possibly because he had a powder blue pokemon egg in his arms, not wanting to leave the egg with his things while he was gone, or possibly because he had exited the gym.

Rather than settling for some form of takeout, Harry instead hit the grocer’s picking up some salmon and lemon, along with a bit of kale and a few ingredients to make a salad and vinaigrette before heading to the Pokecenter. He’d use the communal kitchen there to make a lunch that he and his pokemon could share. Both Goldfyre and Dorothy were back in their pokeballs when Harry made the phone call home. Pallet Town’s registration started at eight in the morning and was likely already done.

“Hello son,” his father answered the phone. 

“Hey dad,” Harry said, sitting down, with the egg in his lap on one of the park benches set in front of the Pokecenter. “How was the registration? What did my dear nephew pick?” Oak sighed. 

“Inpatient boy that Gary is, he was the first one in to register. He picked Squirtle. I wish that boy would see that just because he’s not my son like you, it doesn’t mean I love him any less. He left shortly after nine this morning, intent on catching up to you, I expect that he’ll be challenging you the moment he sees you. Try not to break his pride too much. Arceus knows that boy could use an ego check but I would still like to see him succeed in his dreams,” the professor said. 

“I’ll try but getting beat hard might not only be what he needs to get his ego in check but also what’s needed to inspire him to become better and to rely on what he can do himself rather than what the name Oak can get for him,” Harry said. “Please tell me he’s at least doing the whole journey thing properly? I know that Maranda was talking about purchasing him a vehicle for his journey, please tell me that didn’t happen?” 

“Unfortunately, me and your older brother were overruled in that argument, not that he was able to fight that hard being in Sinnoh,” Oak said. “She purchased him a vehicle with her personal money, and hired a driver.” Harry could see the shrug in his father’s voice. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever said this,” Harry said. “But thank you for never spoiling me to that extent.”

“He’ll learn quickly that the world isn’t going to give him everything he wants,” his father said.

“Either that or he’ll burn out fast,” Harry said. 

“Speaking of burn outs, you know Astred Ketchum? Goes by Ash though I’ve heard Gary call him Red before on account of his hat and his father’s name I suppose,” Oak asked.

“Slightly naive little shit that tried to ride Goldfyre last year?” Harry asked. “Mom’s got a Mr. Mime, and a bit of an overbearing coddling hand?” 

“That’s the one,” his father answered. “He came in late this morning, left just as Gary was leaving. I confess I thought he wasn’t coming and ended up giving the last League supplied starter to a teenager who arrived from Hoenn last night, intent on completing and competing in the Kanto League challenge.” Oak sighed. “He was so disappointed when he came in and I told him there were no more pokemon. I ended up giving him that stubborn Pikachu you caught chewing wires in the lab.” Harry raised an eyebrow. 

“You think that’s a good idea?” Harry asked. “You know as well as I do that that pokemon is pretty powerful, he almost took out Fyre and he’s not even been trained.”

“It was my hastiness at giving away a starter that was already meant for him, I couldn’t disappoint the boy,” his father said. “Can you just look out for him when he arrives in Viridian? Like you said, he’s a little naive and his mother hasn’t exactly been able to give him many opportunities to experience the real world after her husband took off.” 

“I’ll look in on him, give him a few tips, does he at least have poke gear?” Harry asked. 

“I don’t know, but I doubt it, his mother packed him some bags but he turned up at the lab in his pajamas this morning,” Oak answered. Harry sighed. 

“I’ll look into it,” Harry said. “If I get the boy a phone could his mother afford the trainer plan, for talk and text?” Harry asked as he made an order via his pokedex. The boy would be gifted the items at the Pokecenter, via an anonymous donor, in some fake contest, lest his mother attempt to pay Harry back. 

“I don’t think so. Pretty sure they’ve been living paycheck to paycheck, and even if not, market cashier doesn’t pay all that much, especially since she’s been part time so that she could raise young Ash,” Oak said rubbing at his head. 

“I’ll add a prepaid phone card for the Pokecenter toll phones to the list then,” Harry said, clicking a few more things.

“You’re a good boy,” Oak said fondly. Hearing the honking of a car horn and a revving of an engine, Harry sighed. Vehicles weren't all that common in a world where pokemon could be used to get you anywhere you wished to go in only a matter of hours. 

“Well it looks like I need to go,” Harry said. “I have a nephew’s ass to kick.” Oak chuckled. 

“I should tell you to watch your language,” his father said.

“I’d just remind you who taught me most of it,” Harry said. “Anyways, I’ll watch out for Ash, get him started and everything. See you in a few days.”

“Bye son.”

“Bye dad,” Harry said, hanging up the phone just as a cherry red convertible pulled up to the curb of the Pokecenter. A pretty blonde dressed in a modified mini dress to look like a chauffeur’s suit got out and rounded the car to open the door for the spoiled brat who sat in the passenger’s seat. Two other girls in cheerleading outfits shook pom poms in the back with a quick cheer.

“He’s strong, he’s so fast, Gary Oak is here at last.” Harry put two fingers in his mouth and gave a sharp whistle getting the ten year olds attention. 

“Ha!” Gary said, seeing Harry. “It’s the least impressive Oak!” 

“Thought I wasn’t an Oak according to you,” Harry said, standing the pokemon egg in one arm. 

“You aren’t,” Gary hissed. 

“Well this, not Oak’s father, professor Oak. Asked me to beat some of that ego out of you. Hear you picked Squirtle as your pokemon, care for a battle?” Harry asked. 

“Yeah! I challenge you to a battle, right here right now,” Gary shouted. 

“How ‘bout in the training fields, dear nephew,” Harry said. “At least that way when i kick your ass less people are likely to see, since they’ll all be staying in the registration lines.” Harry nodded at the line ups across the street.

“Why? Are you scared?” Gary asked. _Sorry Dad, I did give him a choice, looks like he’s going to get the ego break of his life,_ Harry thought. 

“Fine right here,” Harry said, before turning to the lines of people. “Heads up, battle,” Harry called so that they all knew to stay out of the way and be ready to move in case of a misdirected pokemon attack. 

“I caught a new pokemon and bet you a hundred bucks that both Squirtle and Pidgeyl beat your mangy Growlithe!” Gary said. 

“You’re looking for a two on two battle then?” Harry asked rhetorically. “And hundred bucks it is,” Harry said, pulling out his pokedex, pointing it at Gary. “Helix, battle scan in. Hundred pokedollar bet.” 

“Professional Challenge Battle,” the deep electronic voice said aloud. “Professional Trainer Gary Oak, confirm and scan.” Gary brought out his own pokedex, and typed on it. It was not a masterdex like Harry’s own but still top of the line for a professional trainer. 

“Battle terms confirmed and set,” Helix and Gary’s pokedex both said aloud, communicating with each other wirelessly. Harry turned to one of the younger kids standing with their parents and older sibling. 

“Hold this for me?” Harry asked, passing the little girl the blue egg. She nodded looking up at Harry in awe and moved to stand closer to her parents holding tightly to the powder blue egg. Harry pulled out Goldfyre and Dorothy’s pokeballs and readied himself. 

“Are you ready to begin, Trainer?” Harry asked. 

“I was born ready to kick your butt,” Gary said, throwing out a pokeball. “Pidgey! I choose you.” 

“In you wildest fucking dreams,” Harry whispered under his breath tossing out his own Pokeball. “Dorothy, time to play.” Harry said, calling out his Totodile. Harry allowed a moment for Gary to scan Harry’s pokemon with his pokedex before the battle began. 

“Pidgey, Wing Attack!” Gary ordered. 

“Dorothy, buffer and then hit it with your Water Gun, as hard as you can,” Harry said. Both pokemon did as ordered and just as Harry suspected when Gary ordered his pokemon to attack, Gary didn’t order for a second attack until after the first had hit, allowing Harry’s Totodile the ability to close its eyes and buffer through the winds without worrying about another attack coming while it wasn’t looking. The second the wind stopped Dorothy was shooting a water gun so hard Harry wouldn’t be surprised if she had Hydro Cannon, or Hydro Pump, or even both down by the end of the week. The Pidgey was thrown back hard, passing out in a single hit K.O. 

“Return, Pidgey,” Gary said, using the pokeball to call the fainted pokemon back. Harry could hear the anger and disdain in the boy’s voice. 

“Dorothy, well done, come back,” Harry said, calling Dorothy back into her own ball. Harry knew that Goldfyre would have a definite type disadvantage against a squirtle but he wanted to show Gary that stronger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Speed and strategy would be what this next battle was about. “Goldfyre you’re up,” Harry cast out Goldfyre at the same time Gary selected Squirtle. 

“Let’s make this quick, Agility into a combined Flame Wheel and Bounce, I know you can do it Goldfyre,” Harry called. It was a technique that Goldfyre had barely gotten down this morning but Harry wanted to see how well it actually worked in battle and he had faith that his trusty Growlithe could pull it off. If it worked Harry would give it a move name of Firebomb, so that he didn’t have to give away the move combination to those he was fighting when he called out orders. 

“Water Gun!” Gary ordered his Squirtle, but the little turtle pokemon was nowhere near fast enough to hit Goldfyre, who had already leapt into the air with a circle of flames around him. Gravity swiftly brought Goldfyre back down, his aim landing him perfectly on top of the pokemon as flames burnt at the water pokemon’s slick skin. It was another one hit K.O. 

“You’re out of pokemon,” Harry said recalling Growlithe. “I win.” Helix dinged letting Harry know that the transfer of a hundred pokedollars was complete. “Take this as a learning opportunity, don’t rely on your name, in something like a league challenge it means nothing. Do the work, maybe one day you’ll end up being as great as you think you are, but remember, no matter how strong you get, someone will always be stronger.” Gary’s lip trembled, as he held his pokeballs in hand, and Harry sighed. 

“I’ll make you a deal,” Harry said, cursing himself even as he suggested it. “You can travel with me, at least until Cerulean, if you send the car back home, or if you want ahead to Cerulean. We’ll pick up some proper survival gear and your own tent. I’m going to be in town for the rest of the week, so think about it, you have my number in your phone. I know you do, don’t deny it,” Harry said, when he saw the boy go to open his mouth. “Not a chance in hell, my father, your grandfather wouldn’t have let you leave his lab without making sure it was programmed into your phone.” 

“Should you choose to travel with your Uncle, I offer you the same extension of hospitality as I offered him,” a voice that had Harry fighting off a shiver, especially when a warm hand settled against his back. “But perhaps you should get your pokemon in to see a Joy.” The hand disappeared from Harry’s back. “If you decide to travel with your Uncle, come with him to the gym after the Lottery draw.” Giovanni said. 

“Thanks,” Harry said to the man, before nodding for the older man to head to the stage where another man was trying to discreetly wave him over. As Giovanni walked away Harry walked up to his nephew whose shoulders were slightly slouched in defeat and wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulder to lead him into the Pokecenter, after grabbing his egg. “Come on Gary.”

They were told that both pokemon would be perfectly fine but they wouldn’t be ready to pick up for a bit so Harry and Gary waited in the waiting room. The silence stretched on as Gary sat legs curled up on the couch opposite Harry, looking down at the ground while biting his lip. Harry sat gently running his fingers over the powder blue shell of the egg in his lap.

“Why?” Gary asked eventually. Harry looked up to see the younger boy looking right at him. “I’m always mean to you, I hate you. You hate me, why would you want to travel with me?” Gary asked, and Harry could see the boy was trying to keep the emotion from literally leaking from his eyes. 

Harry smiled softly at the boy and stood setting the egg down in the place he had just vacated, and sat down beside the young boy and drew him into a hug. It was too much for the younger boy, whose sobs rolled out muffled into Harry’s chest, and Harry just holds him even tighter when the boy begins slamming his fists into Harry’s chest. Eventually all energy leaves Gary and he just sits slumped half in Harry’s lap, hands clenched in Harry’s shirt. 

“Has anyone ever told you how I came to be your Uncle?” Harry asked. Without sitting up Gary nodded a negative, and then burrowed deeper. Harry chuckled a little, running his fingers through the boy’s hair. “I never even told your grandfather this, though he knew. But I came from a family that didn’t love me. They hurt me a lot, and your family gave me love. You don’t hate me, and I don’t hate you. If I had to guess you’re a little jealous. I have a dad, who's always there, and yours is always traveling. Is that right?” Gary sniffled and nodded into Harry’s chest. Harry buried his nose into the boy’s hair as he hugged him tight again. 

“I miss him, he even forgot to call for my birthday, but he was there for yours,” Gary sniffled. “It’s not fair!” he shouted.

“No it’s not,” Harry said. “Sometimes nothing ever is.” Their heart to heart was cut short when a Joy called out Gary’s name. Harry loosened his arms so the boy could get up and pick up his pokemon. Just as he took the pokeballs from the woman, a Jenny drove her motorbike through the front doors, skidding to a stop in front of the hospital intake desk. A young boy jumped out of the sidecar holding a very injured Pikachu. 

“Please help my Pokemon,” the boy begged, holding his Pikachu. The Joy took the boy’s Pikachu and rushed off, leaving the boy standing in front of the desk as another Joy berated the Jenny for driving her bike into the building. The Jenny swiftly removed her bike leaving the building. 

“What happened Red?” Gary asked. 

“Don’t call me that! My name is Ash!” Ash exclaimed. “It’s my fault! I kicked the rock, and Pikachu saved me.” The boy sniffled and looked up at them. Harry could see that he was a little beat up, and had a few scratches on his face and his clothes were most certainly ruined. Harry set a hand on Gary’s shoulder before the boy could say something rude. Gary looked up at Harry and immediately Harry could see that the boy was debating a great deal of things internally. 

“Pikachu will be just fine,” Harry said, and then pulled out his pokedex when it gave an alert ding.

“Yellow Alert,” Helix said aloud when Harry tapped the screen. “Known pokemon thieves believed to be in the area. Trainers are asked to be alert. All Tier Three Trainers are asked to report to Viridian City Gym.” 

“You should start a transfer of pokemon to Pewter now,” Harry ordered towards the Joy, who had brought Pikachu back out. Clearly the Pikachu was not fully healed but aware and with several wound cover patches that had antibiotics and health potion in the jelly like patch. The Joy nodded and was running off into the back. “Gary put your pokeballs inside your pocket and do not remove them,” Harry ordered Gary, showing him his pokedex screen. “If you either of these two ask if you have pokemon, pretend you don’t. They are noted as non-lethal so if you don’t have pokemon they’ll probably ignore you. Only if you are truly in danger pull out your pokemon.” Harry hurried over to the egg and picked it up. “Both of you follow me,” Harry ordered, only to start in surprise when the front door of the Pokecenter burst open to reveal a young woman carrying a very beat up bike. 

“There you are, you twerp,” she said angrily. 

“Enough,” Harry said, cutting the girl off. “We have a level Yellow alert, so shut up and finish whatever it is you’re angry about later.” Harry could guess what it was due to the bike’s state. Before the three ten year old trainers could follow him however the glass above them broke. Harry threw himself over his nephew, protecting the younger boy from the worst of the glass, and doing his best to cushion the egg. He heard young Ash exclaim out in worry for his Pikachu. 

“Koffing, Smokescreen,” a male voice ordered, as Harry got to his feet standing in a way that he was in front of the three ten year olds, and pushing the emergency response button on his Pokedex. He coughed twice, and waived away the smoke from his face. The smoky haze dissipated quickly revealing the two pokemon thieves that had been on his screen only a few moments before. One was a dark purple haired male, around nineteen or twenty, the other a female of the same age with vibrantly pink magenta hair that had clearly needed at least one bottle of hairspray to style. A Meowth stood on its hind legs at their feet, along with an Ekans that was wrapped around the woman’s leg, and the Koffing that floated just above the man’s right shoulder.

“Who are you?” Ash asked behind Harry clutching his Pikachu. 

“Prepare for trouble,” pink hairspray began.

“And make it double,” added the purple haired guy.

“To protect the world from devastation,” Pink.

“To unite all peoples within our nation!” Purple struck a pose.

“To denounce the evils of truth and love!” Pink struck an equally obnoxious pose.

“To extend our reach to the stars above!” Purple punched the air.

“Jessie,” Pink.

“James,” Purple. _Oh great, crazy and crazy have names,_ Harry thought.

“Team Meowth, will claw you at the speed of light!” Jessie said.

“Surrender now or prepare to fight!” James added. 

“Meowth that’s right!” said the Meowth, and had they been in any other situation Harry would have been all over that Meowth to figure out how it talked, and not just with it’s mind like psychic pokemon but actually talked with it’s mouth.

“Now give us your pokemon and we won’t hurt you,” Jessie demanded. 

“You can’t have Pikachu!” Ash exclaimed. 

“Like we’d want that weak little rat anyways,” James exclaimed. 

“We need strong pokemon if we want to become the rulers of the world,” Jessie said.

“That’s right,” Meowth added. 

“Back up,” Harry told the three ten year olds, before tossing out Goldfyre’s ball followed quickly by Dorothy’s. “Goldfyre, light that gas cloud on fire, Flamethrower. Dorothy watch his back, and keep the fire from destroying anything.” 

“WHAT!” James exclaimed. 

“Ekans go!” Jessie ordered. The Ekans glared at Dorothy and Harry saw her shiver and drop her guard momentarily. The Ekans chose that moment to attempt a Poison Fang but Dorothy saw through it and demonstrated a move Harry hadn’t even known she knew, Slap, by slapping the snake pokemon away. Ekans shot forward again but instead of aiming for Dorothy or Goldfyre he aimed for Harry who couldn’t dodge because Gary was right behind him and would be hit. Instead he put his free arm up and blocked his face and neck. His arm burned in pain due to the poison injected by the Poison Fang Ekans landed on his upper arm, and blood spurted heavily from the wound. Harry could only watch as Dorothy leapt at the snake pokemon as it attempted to slither away. His eyesight went blurry and his legs weak and it was all he could do to make sure he didn’t fall on the egg as he went down. Vaguely he heard the snick of the front door opening and familiar voice commanding a Persian to use Power Gem, before he completely fainted.

Harry woke up warm, and with the intense urge to go to the bathroom. There was of course an immediate problem with that fact. He had absolutely no clue where he was, and he was wearing silk pajamas that were certainly not his. He sat up slowly carefully keeping the weight off his left arm, which throbbed lightly. It was wrapped up tight with clean white bandages. Harry swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a moment taking in where he was. 

The room was bright and well lit due to the floor to ceiling windows that were letting the sunrise in. It was beautiful. The room was painted a stark snow white, with silver and gold accents. It was very elegant and very large, with kaya mahogany hardwood floors, and soft looking white rugs. Standing up using the white leather footboard of the king size bed to pull himself up and keep his balance. His first steps away from the bed towards the ensuite bathroom, that he could see through the open door. 

He made it to the bathroom and after doing his business, and taking a lengthy draught from the sink, made it most of the way back to the bed before he got dizzy and had to sit down. He heard, something clatter to the ground and then hands were on his back and his father’s voice in his ear. 

“Harry, Harry, what are you doing out of bed?” his father asked worriedly. “When did you wake up?” 

“Five minutes ago maybe?” Harry said, quietly leaning back into his father. “I really had to pee.” Oak huffed an almost hysterical chuckle.

“You’ve been passed out for three days, I suppose you couldn’t wait to pee any longer.” 

“I’ve been out for three days?” Harry said, surprised. 

“Blood loss and severe poisoning son. On your second day of your journey and I’m already receiving an emergency phone call,” his father said, his voice still on the edge of hysterical. “I ought to drag you home and lock you up in the lab but knowing you, you’d just devise some crazy intelligent break out machine!” Harry laughed, and then his stomach rumbled. 

“Here let’s get you back into bed and I’ll see about getting you something to eat,” his father said, helping Harry get to his feet, and into the bed.

“Where am I?” Harry asked. “This doesn’t look like any hospital I know of. It’s certainly not Saffron’s hospital, I remember what it looks like from back when I got my appendix out, and it certainly wasn’t as pretty as this.”

“We’re in Giovanni’s home, Gary’s here too, said you offered him to travel with you,” Oak said, kissing the top of his head. 

“I did,” Harry said.

“He was pretty worried about you,” his father said. “Give me a minute to get you food and I’ll tell you about it.” Only about two minutes after his father left saw Gary rushing into the room. Seeing Harry sitting up, back to against the headboard, the younger boy leapt onto the bed, to hug Harry.

“I can still come with you right?” When you get better?” Gary asked. “You aren’t going to quit like Ash now right?” 

“No I’m not going to quit, and yes you can come with me,” Harry said. “Ash quit?”

“Well kinda, he’s going to wait a few years to go on the journey. He wants to be older when he does it. He was scared after what happened. It was pretty scary, there was blood everywhere,” Gary said. “I’m really glad you’re alright.” 

“As am I,” Giovanni said, causing both boys to look up. The man carried a tray in his arms, Harry’s father right behind him.

“Thank-you for letting me stay, and my family,” Harry said. 

“It was in my city you got attacked, it’s the least I could do,” Giovanni said, setting up the tray on Harry’s legs. “It’s just some beef bone broth with a bit of rice and some dried Oran berry pieces. Nothing too heavy till you’re sure you can keep it down.” 

“Thanks again,” Harry said, taking the spoon and practically devouring the broth in his hunger. “So it sounds like a lot happened while I was out. Someone wanna fill me in?” 

“You’ll be happy to know that the two human members of Team Meowth have been arrested on a charge of attempted murder, amongst a few other things,” Giovanni said.

“Their pokemon, including a rather scientifically interesting Meowth, are going through a full rehabilitation program, before we see if they can be reintegrated and given to a trainer or if they have to be retired completely, or if worst comes to worst put down,” Harry’s father said. 

“I hope that works out,” Harry said. “It’s not the pokemon’s fault that they were used by people without morals. What happened after I passed out?” Harry asked. “I thought I heard you, Giovanni, before I lost consciousness.” 

“I saw you go down as I entered. I had Persian take them out with a few moves and the Joy’s started working on you immediately. They did a good job, they had you all stitched up before your father could even arrive,” Giovanni said, sitting on the white chaise at the end of the bed. 

“Thank Arceus for that,” his father said. “I don’t think I could have dealt with it well, seeing you like that.”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “Gary was telling me that Ash decided to postpone his journey after seeing it.”

“Yes, I do believe he has decided to remain in Pallet for a few more years and train his Pikachu there. I bought the brand new set of Pokegear the boy won, for Gary here to use, since he decided he’s going to travel with you and do his journey the traditional way. As I understand it, Ash used the money to pay for a new bike for a young woman, who’s bike he’d destroyed, and is saving the rest for when he goes on his journey,” Harry’s father said. The man gave Harry a miniscule nod letting Harry know that he’d done well, getting the kid gear even if the boy wouldn’t be continuing on. 

“Any idea how long until I’ll be moving around?” Harry asked. 

“The Joy’s said a minimum of four or five days before the stitches can come out even with the potions you were given, but you should be up by this afternoon if a bit tired,” Harry’s father answered. “So only a day or so and you should be A-okay.”

“Well at least I was already planning on sticking around,” Harry said. “Speaking of, has your friend arrived? And on that note where are my pokemon?”

“Goldfyre and Dorothy are in the courtyard I believe, likely being fed breakfast. The egg is currently in an incubator nest, and as for my friend he arrived last night. Perhaps if you feel better later you can meet and negotiations can begin but I suggest a nap first?” Giovanni asked politely. 

“A nap sounds good,” Harry said, tiredly and beside him Gary yawned widely. 

“The consequences of staying up late and waking up early,” Giovanni noted as he took the tray from Harry’s legs and the younger boy snuggled down beside Harry. Oak leaned over and kissed both boy’s heads after helping Harry settle into a lying down position. Harry fell asleep fairly quickly, not even waking when Goldfyre and Dorothy joined him and Gary on the, thankfully large bed. 

When Harry woke again it was to a Pidgey pecking his face. 

“Ouch,” Harry hissed as he pushed the little bird pokemon away. 

“Stop that Pidgey I told you,” Harry heard Gary say. “You’ll wake him up.”

“It's alright,” Harry said. “I’m already awake.” Harry pushed himself up and transferring the Pidgey from his chest to his lap, his muscles feeling much stronger than earlier.

“Sorry,” Gary said. The boy was sitting on one of the rugs petting Goldfyre who lay beside him, and had obviously been reading from a small chapter book that was open in his hand. 

“It’s not a problem, it’s probably a good thing for me to wake up now,” Harry said, gently stroking the feathers of the bird pokemon that was now in his lap. “You haven’t given your pokemon names yet?” Harry asked. 

“I couldn’t think of ones I liked that fit. I mean what if when they evolved their names don’t fit anymore?” Gary asked. 

“I think you’re overthinking it a little,” Harry said smiling. “For example Pidgey here seems a little zany so why don’t you pick a nickname that fits his personality instead of his evolutionary line? He is male right?” Harry asked rhetorically before checking the tail feathers for distinctive markings himself. 

“Yeah he’s a boy,” Gary said, confirming Harry’s own conclusion. “What kind of nicknames are zany?” 

“How about I list a few and you can both decide if you like one?” Harry asked. 

“Could you do that for Squirtle too?” Gary asked, and Squirtle popped his head out of his shell where he’d been sleeping underneath the coffee table. Harry hadn’t even seen him there. 

“Sure, let's start with Pidgey thought. Alright Zeppelin?” Harry asked and both Gary and Pidgey shook their heads. 

“Octavian?” Gary’s head shook but Pidgey tilted his head and looked at Squirtle who had crawled out from underneath the little table and was bouncing a little. 

“Well I guess we found Squirtle a nickname first after all,” Harry said. “He seems to like Octavian.”

“I think it fits him too,” Gary said, pulling the turtle into a hug. 

“What about Templar?” Harry asked Pidgey who shook his head again. “Zephyr?” Pidgey fluttered his wings and Gary shouted out happily. 

“You both seemed to be having a good time,” Oak said, from the doorway of the room. 

“Harry helped me nickname my pokemon,” Gary said, happily acting like the ten year old he was. “This is Octavian, and Zephyr is on Harry’s lap.”

“That’s fantastic! Naming your pokemon has proven to help in the formation of stronger partnership bonds. Pokemon that have been nicknamed are more likely to train harder and obey your orders,” Oak said. “However I was coming to see if you were awake and able to come for lunch. Wash up Gary, there’s food on the table already.” 

“I’m feeling stronger, I’m going to take a shower. I assume my bags made it here from the Gym?” Harry asked. His father nodded, and proved it by lifting the bag from where it sat on the chaise at the end of the bed. 

“When you’re done with your shower, down the hall and then the stairs and to the left, that’s where we’ll be. Norman Masters, the man interested in a breeding contract will be at lunch,” Harry’s father said. “Come down when you’re ready.”

“Thanks dad,” Harry said. 

It took almost twenty minutes for Harry to finally make it down to the dining hall. He was feeling a little tired and all three men sitting at the table were quick to their feet when they saw him. Giovanni was the fastest however, and swiftly had an arm around Harry’s waist and was leading him to a chair that his father pulled out.

“Thank-you, though I don’t believe my tiredness will last much longer,” Harry said, before turning to the man who sat beside him. “Dr. Harry Oak, pleasure to meet you,” Harry introduced himself extending a hand. The other man shook Harry’s hand and introduced himself.

“Norman Masters, of Petalburg Town in Hoenn, formerly of Olivine City, Johto,” Norman said. “Likewise a pleasure.” 

“Would it be rude of me to ask why the immigration to Hoenn?” Harry asked. 

“Part of negotiations for Johto to send troops to Hoenn, was the provision of at least two expereinced gym level or above level trainers. I was chosen because another in Johto had succeeded in qualifying for Gym Leader status. As I understand Sinnoh provided an Elite trainer, Glacia I believe her name is,” Norman answered. 

That answer sparked a political debate on Kalos, Unova, and Galar’s current independence and wars. Unova and Galar were currently at war with one another so most of the Eastern Republic of Regions ruled and governed by the Pokemon League, made up by Johto, Kanto, Sinnoh, Sinjoh, Hoenn, Oblivia Fiore, Almia, and Pasio, weren’t worried about those countries turning their attention towards them. Galar had recently been an ally of the Eastern Republic of Regions, and the League had been courting them in an attempt to envelope them in as a start to join the western continent to the east. 

Unfortunately the relationship had soured when the newly elected president of Galar, with the support of his people, had decided that unlike his predecessor he didn’t want to give up his rather extensive power as president to join with the Republic, and all arms of the Galar based conglomerate Macros Cosmos business pulled from every country that was part of the Eastern Republic, about three years ago. The rich but rather sparsely populated country had regretted these actions when Unova had turned around just over a year later and began invading the more northern country for the vast and precious resources it had. Neither country was truly making progress in their war, though what little reports came out of the area described no man’s land, as a killing field stretching six miles in length, where no plant, pokemon, or human lived. Silent but for when battles broke out, when the screams of the dying pierced the area until the silence overwhelmed once more, proclaiming the land and all of its occupants dead.

Orre and Ferrum both remained officially neutral in the Galar and Unova’s war as well as Kalo’s probing into the defenses of both Pasio and Hoenn, but information gathered by ACER Rangers, or Advanced Casing Eastern Republic Rangers, suggested that they were quietly supplying all three countries with information, battle trained pokemon, and weapons, and so the Eastern Republic had recently raised sanctions and no region that was a member of the Eastern Republic was willing to trade with either Orre or Ferrum.

The Eastern Republic had created several Navy blockades and border guards around the Island Regions of Pasio and Hoenn, to ensure that only Easter Republic boats, trainers and citizens could enter the Islands, as well as large military encampments on the sea border of Fiore and Almia. Navel Rangers patrolled the seas between Almia and Hoenn as well as Hoenn and Pasio. In the end, even should all of the Western regions choose to attempt to join together and attack the Eastern Republic the Eastern Republic was likely to prevail, due in part to their more cohesive alliance to one another, but also because of the efficiency of the way the League arranged its professional trainers. 

Unlike Alerts, where the Tier of the trainer decided who was allowed to answer the call and why, age and Ranger Training was required of all soldiers sent to any form of war. All Tier six trainers over the age of sixteen were required to undergo Ranger Testing, and dependent on the results would be required to serve in some fashion under the Leagues Ranger Core for at least one year. Most conscripted trainers served as Interregional Patrol, simply walking the known routes within a specific region and ensuring they were safe, occasionally helping out in need trainers, or responding to SOS signals. Interregional Patrol members of the Ranger Core were often the squad leaders that other trainers reported too during Yellow or higher level alerts, although they often took lead in Search and Rescues despite their Blue alert level.

Harry was brought out of his train of thoughts by Norman suddenly speaking to him. 

“I haven’t had the opportunity to ask, but your Growlithe. He’s got such a beautiful coloring. How did you get him?” Norman asked. Harry swallowed his mouthful of potato, before answering. 

“In the forest near Pallet actually. His mother abandoned him, in the forest after injuring him,” Harry answered. “I believe that Professor Elm is actually beginning a study into the birth of Shiny pokemon and their rarity, and is about to publish a paper on the topic.” 

“I know my daughter will be quite interested in reading that,” Norman said. “She has always had an avid interest in the contest circuit and statistically shiny pokemon tend to score better in the appeals.”

“Yes, Giovanni mentioned that you would be in town looking for a shiny male pokemon of the egg group field, and believed that Goldfyre might interest you. Even before the incident with Team Meowth I was planning on remaining in VIridian City in order to meet with you,” Harry said. “May I ask what the female pokemon of your breeding pairing is?”

“Actually I brought her with me,” Norman said standing up. “If you’d like to meet her.” 

“That would be lovely,” Harry answered.

“Do you mind Giovanni? Or would you prefer I release her outside?” Norman asked.

“Go ahead, I don’t mind,” Giovanni said raising his crystal flute to his mouth as he took a sip and watched avidly.

“Very well,” Norman said, pulling a pokeball from his pocket and aiming it’s laser a few feet away and pushing the release button. A flash of red, caused them all to blink before an eerie howl rose in the air. “It’s alright Cassidy,” Norman said, “There’s no battle, just showing you off.” The Houndoom blinked and settled slowly walking up Norman for a brief pet. 

“She’s beautiful,” Harry said. Though he’d never seen a Houndoom personally himself he did know the fire type pokemon’s general look. Instead of black like most of their species this one was an eye catching vibrant cobalt, and it’s bony features were a glinting silver as opposed to the regular white. It’s underbelly fur and snout were snow white and eyes a glinting orange that betrayed it’s fire typing even as the rest of it’s coloring attempted to obscure it.

“She’s been in my family for almost twenty-six years, and fast approaching the end of her fertile lifetime,” Norman said, and Harry nodded, the Houndoom line had an average lifespan of thirty years as opposed to the Arcanine lines average lifespan of almost fourty, and like most pokemon were not fertile in their first two years and generally began losing fertility in their last two. “My daughter leaves to start competing in contests next year and I want her to have a companion that can defend her and help her achieve her dreams.” 

“A noble endeavor,” Oak said. “I assume you are going with artificial insemination?”

“Yes,” Norman said. “Although she seems to enjoy mothering pokemon, she took a strong distaste to the last one I attempted for her to mate.”

“I know generally people pay good money for breeding a pokemon like Goldfyre but I would prefer payment in a different way should we do this,” Harry said. 

“And that would be?” Norman asked cautiously.

“If she has more than one egg, I would like one of them,” Harry said. 

“That could easily be arranged,” Norman said. “As I understand the average, Growlithe or Arcanine has litters of about six, similar to Houndooms who average at four. If there are more than two eggs I may keep one for my son, May’s younger brother Brendan, and give the rest to the League to provide starter pokemon. May I ask what you plan to do with the egg? Goldfyre is still quite young.”

“Yes, but outside of breeders for Jenny companions, the Arcanine line is rarely seen in the wild and rather difficult to catch and the Houndoom line even more difficult, at least in Kanto, since they haven’t migrated all that much,” Harry said. “I promised I’d buy Gary pokegear when he came with me, it was going to be a birthday gift since he turns eleven in only a few months. However it seems father beat me to it. Instead I’ll give him an egg and teach him how to raise a baby pokemon. Starters are always at least a year or more old as you know.” Oak’s phone dinged and he glanced down at the screen.

“Speaking of eggs,” Harry’s father said. “One of my lab assistants just messaged that the Dragonite’s eggs have begun hatching back at the lab, we should check on your’s Harry.” 

“I’ll lead the way,” Giovanni said as they all exited the table. Gary was bouncing obviously excited though he’d been keeping rather quiet during lunch as he listened to the adults talk. 

“You’d really give me an egg?” Gary asked Harry in a whisper shout.

“I said I would, didn’t I?” Harry answered with a grin. He was still a little tired but he didn’t feel the immediate need to sit down when they arrived at the door of what seemed almost to be a greenhouse. 

“Harry should go in first in case it’s already begun,” Oak said. “Pokemon form a strong bond with the first person or pokemon they see after hatching.” Harry took a deep breath to steady himself and pushed open the door. Though he had certainly played and cared for his share of baby pokemon he’d never before actually gotten to watch a hatching. 

The egg was sitting in a basion like contraption that held sweet hay and a soft looking blanket. At first Harry was disappointed, the egg looking as though it was just as still as ever before he saw the slight vibrations and undelation across the powder blue shell. 

“You can come in,” Harry called approaching the egg. “It hasn’t hatched yet.” The four males entered behind but stayed a distance away allowing Harry his moment, Oak having to keep a hand on Gary’s shoulder to keep the curious boy still. Harry watched captivated as cracks began appearing in the egg as it’s occupant moved around trying to find it’s escape. Harry knew better than to try and help the pokemon, as some needed the hatching process to fully develop. His hands gripped the table the well lined basin was set on as his eyes glued themselves to any glimpse of the pokemon that was coming into the world.


	4. Chapter 4

There was a harsh keening sound and Harry’s eyes widened at the egg basically shattered, and a wriggling length of blue and white escaped. They widened even further when he realized that there was not one little snake but two, one was entirely powder blue like a regular Dratini only where one would normally have a white underbelly snout and ear fins those two were a powder blue. The other snake made up for the missing white on the first being completely white, even it’s iris were a blue so light it was almost white.

“Oh wow,” Harry said, reaching his hands gently into the nest to pick the baby pokemon up.

_“Momma,”_ both of the snakes hissed together. Even though there were two of them they both fit into his cup palms together easily. He brought them up to his chest and peered down at them. They booped their noses against his, tongues flicking out to taste and scent him, before curling and entwining together further and settling into his hands. Neither of them were thicker than his thumb or longer than the tip of his middle finger to the end of his palm, both much smaller than the average Dratini. 

“They’re tiny,” Harry said, turning to the four waiting in the door. 

“They?” his father questioned striding forward reaching Harry even faster than the very curious Gary. “There was only one egg, this should be impossible,” the man said looking at the very undersized sleeping pokemon in Harry’s hands. “They are also exceedingly small. They may not live long.”

“I will do my very best to keep them alive,” Harry said before lowering his hands for Gary to look, so the boy could stop trying to bounce up to see. 

Three days later Harry and Gary were set to once more begin their journey. Harry and Norman had signed a contract the day after Harry’s birthday, and the artificial extraction and then insemination had already occurred, with Cassidy the Houndoom being confirmed to be making eggs only a few hours later. Since the gestation process before she laid the eggs was anywhere from thirteen to twenty three days, Norman would be heading home and would have the egg sent to Professor Oak, who could deliver it to Gary and Harry when it finally came. Harry would also be receiving half of the profit made from any of the eggs that would end up being sold to the League. It wouldn’t be as much as it would be if they were sold privately but Harry didn’t mind. 

For his birthday Harry and his father had gone to dinner alone at the new restaurant in Viridian, Elegance, though he’d had a special lunch with Giovanni, Norman, Gary and his father the day before in celebration. Harry was fully healed now and ready to go. His father had purchased him and Gary collapsible tube bikes, while Giovanni had gifted him two tickets on a luxury cruise line, the S.S Anne, stating he should take Gary. Harry had ignored the suspicious look his father had given the man when he mentioned that he was to be out of the region during part of the time the cruise would be in Kanto, in favor of accepting the rather expensive gift. Because of the date of the ship arriving in port, Harry and Gary would be flying directly there with Otto and Pyro, along with his father. 

Gary had been thoughtful enough to purchase Harry new runners for his birthday, along with a bandanna to wear when he was working out. The boy had joined him in a few of his morning exercises, like push ups, planks and suicide sprints, but had yet to actually wake early enough for the morning runs. Today however Harry had no regrets about getting his nephew up early as the flight to Vermillion would take a few hours even on a pokemon’s back.

“Up, up!” Harry said, double checking his bags as he entered the guest room Gary was in. 

“Don’t wanna,” Gary grumbled. Harry snorted, it was only five-thirty in the morning, the boy would get used to waking up at this time regularly when he traveled with Harry. 

“Ship boards in four and a half hours and the flight there is three. Get your stuff and get up!” Harry shouted, not letting the boy roll over and go back to sleep. Breakfast was swift, and the Oak’s had said their goodbyes to Norman and Giovanni the night before. That didn’t stop Giovanni from pulling Harry into a room when he left the sight of his father and nephew. 

“Giovanni what?” Harry said in surprise only to fall speechless when the older man’s lips pressed passionately against his own. Harry moaned, gripping at Giovanni’s shirt as the man licked his way into Harry’s mouth, and practically devoured him in a single kiss. Harry was flushed and breathing heavily when the man pulled away. 

“My apologies,” Giovanni said, brushing cool fingers over Harry’s flushed cheek. “It was rude of me to steal such a kiss from you, especially in light of the fact we are not lovers, but I found I couldn’t resist in the face of not seeing you for sometime. I will not ask for you to wait for me, you are far too young, but perhaps when we see each other again we could have a chance?” Giovanni asked. Harry couldn’t help but shudder at the man’s caress, before breathing deeply to formulate a response. 

“You strike me as a possessive man,” Harry said. “And yet even after kissing me breathless you only ask for a chance?”

“You are not mine yet,” Giovanni said. “But should you choose to be, then I warn you, I will never let you go.” Somehow that statement was both deeply threatening and a mind numbingly erotic all that the same time, and it was all Harry could do but keep from whimpering in want. Mentally he shook his head, he couldn’t give in just because. Perhaps it was a good idea to wait until they met again before Harry gave his answer, he could have time to think. Time that was not spent in this intoxicating man’s presence. Harry extricated himself from the man’s hands, letting go of Giovanni’s shirt as he stepped back. Harry took in a shuddering breath reaching for the doorknob behind him.

“Goodbye Giovanni,” Harry whispered, as he twisted the doorknob.

“Harry,” Giovanni said, voice plaintive.

“I’ll think about it,” Harry promised as he left the room, hurrying to catch up to his family who were likely already waiting outside.

Harry rode Otto alone, while Pyro carried his father and Gary. The three hours it took to fly to Vermillion City were a lot of free time to think about the kiss and about Giovanni’s words and somewhat threatening promise. Eventually he decided that it was best not to think about it now, especially when he had to tell Castor and Pollux, the twin Dratini who turned out to be male, to stay in his shirt pocket when they attempted to see what flying was like and almost fell out while he wasn’t paying attention. 

It was clear that Gary was not used to flying on pokemon when they finally landed. The poor boy was clearly sore from sitting in one position so long. It only took them twenty minutes to get their bags off of the pokemon’s backs and unsaddle Otto so that he could go back into his pokeball for Professor Oak’s flight back to Pallet. Goodbye’s were swift and Harry and Gary waved until they could no longer see the orange of Pyro’s body in the sky.

They still had an hour until boarding, having taken a half an hour for breakfast and getting ready to leave and the three hour flight. Already however there was a line for boarding the ship and Harry and Gary swiftly joined it. 

“I’ll get us some food if you wanna stay in line and hold our spot,” Harry said. “I know that you don’t like cabbage or tomatoes, anything else I should stay away from?”

“I don’t much like peas,” Gary said. 

“Is sushi or fish dishes okay though?” Harry asked. “You can probably find some of the freshest fish here in all of Kanto,” Harry asked.

“I’ve never had sushi,” Gary said. 

“Well I’ll get us a few things and we’ll see what you like,” Harry said, and was off. Twenty-five minutes later found Harry and Gary sitting cross legged on the ground in line eating eel skewers along with a bowl of rice, with cooked scallops, crab, and oyster pieces. They’d even released their pokemon and fed and watered them. Harry had fed Caster and Pollux the paste like pokemon baby food for non, mammalian pokemon. Castor, the blue Dratini and Pollux, his snow white brother, were eating small pieces of scallop, crab, and oyster, the baby snakes striking swiftly at the pinky nail sized pieces of meat that Harry held in his fingers. They were still in his shirt pocket, comfortable there since they were too young for pokeballs. 

A young girl half hidden behind her father’s leg, who had another young child, a boy, on his hip approached where Harry and Gary sat with their bags, their Goldfyre and Octaivian lazing around them now that they’d finished eating and put Dorothy and Zephyr back into their balls, neither truly comfortable around large groups of people the way the trained starter and the Growlithe that had basically grown up with Harry were. 

“Can we pet your pokemon?” asked the little girl. Harry glanced towards Gary, before answering. 

“You can pet my Growlithe,” Harry said, patting Goldfyre who laid stretched out beside him. “He’s quite gentle with children, his name is Goldfyre, you’ll have to ask Gary about Octavian in his lap there. As for these little ones,” Harry gently ran a finger over the heads of the two Dratini which based off of the DNA tests that Harry had run shortly after their birth, were the result of the mating between a Dragonite and an Altaria. “They’re a little too young to know not to bite yet,” Harry said. 

“You can touch Octavian,” Gary said, “Just be gentle.”

“Thanks,” the father said as his daughter gently touched Octavian’s shell and smooth head and his son ran his little fingers through Goldfyre’s hair. Eventually however boarding begins and Goldfyre and Octavian are returned to their balls as per the cruise ships boarding policy. Harry has to admit upon getting to their rooms after undergoing the security check and registering their pokemon for the ride, the title of luxury cruise was certainly deserved. Unknown to Harry when he first accepted the gift, the two tickets were not just regular tickets but first class VIP tickets. 

They were escorted to the S.S Anne’s Premier suite, their luggage carried for them by two housekeeping workers. 

“This is awesome!” Gary said, immediately jumping onto the californian, or rather Sinjohian king bed. “It’s so big.”

“It is,” Harry said, tipping the workers who set their bags just inside the door. 

Both boys attended the obligatory safety meeting before making their way back to the room, and letting their pokemon once more out of their balls. Harry settled Pollux and Castor into the basket that had held their complimentary gifts, after dumping out the chocolates and bath products and putting a soft hand towel inside of it. They settled quickly curling around one another as they watched the room from the vanity the basket had been set on. Goldfyre settled on the ground beside the sliding door to the terrace, soaking in the warm sun rays, Octavian, and Dorothy were rolling one of their pokeballs back and forth between themselves while Zephyr settled gently, almost nesting on Goldfyre’s upturned side. Harry and Gary however were sitting on the bed they’d be sharing, Harry’s pokedex displaying a holographic map of Kanto. 

“Can’t we just follow the road and challenge the League gyms in each city?” Gary said, clearly bored. 

“No,” Harry said. “You didn’t research anything but pokemon before you started your journey did you?” 

“I didn’t see the point,” Gary said. Harry withheld a sigh.

“Well the first problem of just traveling the route and challenging Gyms, is that Giovanni, who’s the Leader of the Viridian gym doesn’t take challenges from anyone who doesn’t already hold five gym badges from a single Region, Sabrina of Saffron requires her challengers to be considered tier four trainers which mean they hold at least two or three gym badges from a single Region and Koga only takes trainers who can display patience and determination, by taking several defense classes before he’ll take a trainer’s challenge,” Harry said. “That doesn’t even touch the factor that I am sixteen.”

“Oh, so you can only get five badges before you have to go for Ranger training?” Gary said.

“Four,” Harry corrected. “My doctorate in pokemon studies makes me a tier two trainer as opposed to the tier one that most League trainers start as.” 

“Oh,” Gary said. “So we can only travel together for a little bit then?” 

“Yes,” Harry said. “But rather than think of that right this minute why don’t we map our route out for when we return to shore. Then perhaps tomorrow morning we can check out the ship's training grounds. There’s a doubles battle tournament we can sign up for that’s set to run in a few days, but we should practice together, plus out of all our pokemon, only Goldfyre truly knows how to battle.”

“Alright,” Gary said. “We would challenge the Vermilion City Gym first right? Since we’ll be there already.”

“Yes,” Harry answered. “Though we may have to stay in town for a week, the Gym Leader Lt. Surge is one of the League’s few Master Electricians and gets sent out to help set up major electrical machines. He was actually the one to set up the scanner at my temporary lab when I was in Lavender Town. Harry tapped the hologram, touching Vermillion city causing the map to change to a close up map of the city proper. Harry tapped again directly on the displayed gym building. Several options came up and Harry quickly clicked the option to see information on the current Gym. 

“That’s Lt. Surge? He looks kinda old,” Gary said, when an image of the Gym Leader appeared on the screen, of a grey haired and mustached man, in navy blue dress pants and a dark red Kantosian military jacket with several medals pinned over his heart. 

“Don’t let that make you underestimate him,” Harry said. “He only took the name Surge when he became the Gym leader of Vermillion and chose electric as the Gym’s specialty. You’ll recognize his true name, from your history classes.” Harry tapped the image of the Gym Leader and all the information on the man available to the public, as well as a little more due to Harry’s status came up.

“That’s Lt. Curtis Mulligan!” Gary exclaimed reading the full name displayed beside the hologram. “He carried Colonel Nathanial Tarragon six miles across enemy territory during the second war with Kalos! He’s a war hero.”

“He’s an experienced, war pilot as well,” Harry said. “He had a young Pikachu that once saved his plane from going down during the Battle of Almia Bay during the second war with Kalos as well. That Pikachu is now a Rachiu if rumors are correct, and a member of his personal team.”

“How are we going to beat him?” Gary said. “He’s going to be way stronger than us.” 

“You really didn’t look up anything,” Harry said, slightly exasperated. Gary blushed. “When you challenge a Gym, both the amount of badges you have along with your Trainer tier level are taken into account. So when we challenge Lt. Surge he won’t be using his personal team, he’ll be using a League sanctioned team that caters to our perceived skill level. You can request that he use his personal team but I suggest you only do that after you already have a few badges. You can always come back and rechallenge a Gym Leader after beating their League sanctioned team.”

“Oh,” Gary said. “So where to after we challenge Lt. Surge?” 

“Well once both of us have our badges, which you will have to train hard for, and when we get back to land you should attempt to catch another pokemon. Both Octavian and Zephyr have typing disadvantages, you could train them to be stronger against electric types if we had an electric pokemon between us.” 

“Won’t it take you a long time to get the badge too? I mean Dorothy is a water pokemon like Octavian, and Goldfyre doesn’t have a type advantage even if electric pokemon aren’t strong against him like they are water and flying,” Gary said. 

“While it’s true that Dorothy has a type disadvantage, Goldfyre is exceedingly strong due in large part to while I was not a League registered trainer I trained with him nonetheless. We’ve created moves that are not League recognized and are able to communicate without words,” Harry answered. “That’s not to say that I won’t be training hard with my pokemon as well but, I’m not as worried as you need to be.”

“Alright,” Gary said. “Where will we go after Vermillion?” Harry returned the hologram to its original map of Kanto and began highlighting a route. 

“We should go from Vermillion to Fuschia City,” Harry said. “We’ll have to stock up on food and first aid supplies before we head out, it’s a rather long route. We’d take Route 11 west to the coast before heading south on 13 to 14 and take that east till it changes into 15 and continue all the way to Fuschia City. It will give us an opportunity to fill out our teams a little and also visit the Safari Zone.” 

“Koga is the leader in Fuchsia right? Does he use fighting types since he requires his challengers to take defense classes before he accepts their challenges?” Gary asked. 

“Actually Koga is a master of poison type pokemon,” Harry said. “Poison is vulnerable to water pokemon due to their body composition allowing them to filter poisons, so I'm not worried about our current teams against him.” Gary nodded. 

“Plus we’d have caught new pokemon,” Gary said. 

“Yes, we likely will have,” Harry said. “From Fuschia we head north on the cycling road, we have our bikes, and it’s a known hang out for trainers so we can get a good amount of battles in. We’d have to keep our eyes open, it’s a known stomping ground for several biking gangs. Most of them will leave us alone but a few occasionally cause issues on the route.” 

“That brings us to Celadon then?” Gary asked.

“Yes, who’s current Gym Leader is Erika Serenity, she’s a master of Grass pokemon, which also makes her a master in status effects due to grass pokemon’s inherent mastery of spore type moves that poison, paralyze, cause sleep, and even a few that cause irritating burns,” Harry said, before Gary could disparage the grass type leader. Many people often thought that grass type pokemon were the weakest of pokemon types even more so than normal types due to their often gentle natures. 

“That actually sounds kinda hard,” Gary said. 

“We’ll worry about that when we get a little closer to Celadon. After that we’ll go to Saffron, we’ll both be at least tier four and can challenge Sabrina. Both her pokemon and she have psychic abilities which will be interesting. From there we’ll be separating as that will be my fourth badge, and I’ll be a tier six trainer and I’ll have to report for Ranger Training and mandatory service,” Harry said, before adding upon seeing Gary’s face. “We have plenty of time before then besides, you’ll have some experience behind you, and be ready to travel on your own. Now shall we get dinner?”

“Can we order room service instead of going out tonight?” Gary asked. Harry could see that the boy was feeling a little vulnerable. Natural since he has only recently begun opening up and seeing Harry as an older brother. The thought of having to continue his journey without his brother was likely a scary one.

“Of course,” Harry said. “We can eat on the terrace.” The evening went quickly, with their pokemon fed and watered and bedded down for the night Harry and Gary changed into their own bed clothes before bedding down together in the Sinjohian king bed. Harry woke Gary up at quarter to six forcing the boy up to come for a run on the ships running track with him, firm on the fact that it was just as important for a trainer to train his or herself as it is to train their pokemon. 

The boy was much slower than Harry and certainly didn’t have anywhere near the stamina Harry had and while he complained the entire time, he still stayed and jogged slowly on the track. Harry let the boy take a shower first, while he rubbed down Goldfyre. He snorted when the boy walked out of the bathroom clearly sore and dug through his bag for a small jar of cream that was made with a mixture of ice heal and potion along with lotion and tossed it to the boy with instructions for him to rub it on his legs. It warmed and healed at the same time healing aches and pains and was indispensable to Harry after a long training session, and it was pokemon friendly as well. 

Following a quick shower for himself, they went for breakfast after feeding their pokemon and returning them to their balls, Harry carrying Castor and Pollux’s appropriated basket. They headed up to the training grounds and Harry quickly confirmed with one of the medics who was overseeing the grounds that it was suitable for fire pokemon to train. Setting Castor and Pollux’s basket out of any line of fire Harry showed Gary how to warm up with his pokemon, and learn the moves they knew before Harry set Goldfyre to perfecting his Firebomb and Dorothy once more to attempt to turn her Water Gun into a Water Cannon and eventually into a Hydro Pump. 

Harry gave Gary a few tips that had the younger boy working on strengthening Octavian’s own Water Gun attack and teaching Zephyr the move Roost which would be invaluable in the battle against Lt. Surge, due to the fact that it allowed a flying type pokemon to forgo their typing for a moment, by drawing in the nearest power to heal itself. That meant for a few moments in the battle against Lt. Surge Zephyr would have a pseudo-electric typing and wouldn’t be as susceptible to the electrical attacks of the man’s pokemon. 

During that Harry taught Gary a few simple exercises, push ups, planks, leg crunches and other muscle building exercises, along with making the boy join him in a few suicide lines. Eventually both of them were rather tired and they took a break to look in on how their pokemon were doing. Zephyr had learned Roost quite easily. He didn’t yet bring a whole lot of energy into himself, but with practice it would get stronger. Goldfyre had also perfected the move he and Harry had developed, and it had given Gary an idea for Zephyr’s move set. 

Dorothy had managed to get Water Cannon down but could only do it twice before she needed a huge amount of time to recharge her water abilities, a time where she couldn’t use a single water based move, which severely restricted her moveset as she didn’t have any distance attacks that weren’t water based. Octavian, while he had made progress was nowhere near where Dorothy was with his Water Gun’s strength. 

“Alright,” Harry said. “Ten minute break and then we need to do a mock battle.”

“Your pokemon are stronger than mine though, there’s no way that I’ll win,” Gary said. 

“Actually I’m going to have Octavian and Goldfyre work together while we attempt to direct Dorothy and Zephyr into beating them,” Harry said. 

“Why Octavian?” Gary asked, confused. 

“League provided starter pokemon are pre-trained by the breeders before they’re given to officials to give out,” Harry answered. “Because there are so few of them to give away, the League does everything it can to ensure success by teaching the pokemon independent battling in case of an emergency that leaves their trainer unable to direct them. Octavian may not be as strong as Goldfyre but he has independence training and will work well with Goldfyre without instruction. As to Goldfyre he has enough battle experience to have learned battle independence on his own.”

“Oh,” Gary said, before taking a long and much needed drink from his water bottle. While they rested Harry showed Gary a series of easy stretches that helped prevent injury and allowed one to remain limber. 

“Alright,” Harry said. “Goldfyre, Octavian you’re a team, you’re going to try and defeat Zephyr and Dorothy, okay?” Goldfyre gave a nod while Octavian looked towards Gary for confirmation. 

“Listen to Harry, Octavian,” Gary ordered. 

“He’s loyal, that’s a good thing,” Harry said. “Alright, Zephyr, Dorothy, you’re a team now too, you have to work together, you think you can do that?” Zephyr fluttered his wings and puffed his tiny crest while Dorothy bounced back and forth on either leg. 

“Alright let’s get into battle position,” Gary said. Immediately all of the pokemon readied themselves on either side of their training yard. Harry glanced behind them and noticed they had an audience. Keeping it to himself as to not make Gary notice or have him decide to try and be showy Harry began a countdown. 

“Three, two, one, battle begin!” Harry shouted. 

“Zephyr take to the air,” Gary yelled at the same time Harry ordered. 

“Dorothy douse the area with water, and weaken Fyre’s firepower.” Goldfye growled and leapt at Dorothy who snapped her teeth at him causing him to dodge back, splashing in the water that Dorothy had layered the ground with. Octavian however used the water to his advantage and raced forward ducking into his shell at the last moment and skidding through the water to hit Dorothy hard, and bouncing back. Harry winced at the hard thwap sound their contact made. 

“Zephyr land on Octavian and pecked him when he comes out of his shell,” Gary ordered. It was a good plan but it also put both of the pokemon out of the battle because of their stalemate. Zephyr had to stay on Octavian if he wished to peck him, and Octavian couldn’t come out of his shell without getting pecked.

“Dorothy circle and put Octavian and Zephyr between you and Goldfyre,” Harry said, noticing Octavian’s shell glow a dull grey indicating the turtle pokemon was performing the move Harden. “Tell Zephyr to go in the air when I order Dorothy to use Water Cannon,” Harry whispered quietly, trying not to shiver as Goldfyre began a long drawn out growl. Gary looked confused but gave a nod. 

“Dorothy Water Cannon directly on Octavian, full power,” Harry ordered.

“Zephyr back in the air!” Gary ordered only a second after. The moment Zephyr’s weight left Octavian’s back the young turtle began to peek his head out. He didn’t get very far before Dorothy’s full strength Water Cannon slammed into him and sent him skidding across the wet floor directly into a very surprised Goldfyre who yelped as his front legs were taken out.The turtle was dazed and very clearly out of the fight leaving only Goldfyre, Gary swiftly retracting the turtle back into his pokeball, so he wouldn’t get caught in the crossfyre further. 

“Zephyr, dive down and Peck Goldfyre, then back up and out of the way, continue everytime you see an opening.,” Gary said, not even losing a single opportunity.

“Dorothy, conserve your strength and use your medium strength Water Gun on Goldfyre when Zephyr is out of the way. We’re going to tag team him,” Harry ordered. It took a bit of time but Zephyr and Dorothy eventually wore the fire pokemon down, though Zephyr took a hit close to the end when he didn’t get back into the air fast enough and Goldfyre’s Fire Claw smacked him. It wasn’t overly strong both due the earlier injury to the shiny pokemon’s front legs and the fact that water saturated his fur dampening his fire. Dorothy retaliated, avenging her teammate without even being ordered with a full power Water Cannon that slammed into Harry’s poor Growlithe with stunning accuracy and position knocking him out completely. Both boys recalled their pokemon with a ‘well done’ to each.

“We did it,” Gary said, and suddenly there was a smattering of clapping behind them, causing the boy to turn around in surprise. 

“We did,” Harry said, drawing the boy’s attention back. “But remember, technically Goldfyre and Octavian had no trainer for that battle. Trainer against trainer is much harder, but you’ll see that when we participate in the tournament. Let’s get our pokemon back into their balls and get the medics to heal them up. Then we can go get lunch and sign up for the tournament.”

“What are we going to do after lunch?” Gary asked. 

“Well I saw there was a pool on the top deck when we were doing our run on the track this morning. I know that Zephyr and Goldfyre likely won’t join us in the pool but I bet you they wouldn’t mind sunning themselves on the top deck while Octavian and Dorothy play with us in the pool. That and Goldfyre is going to demand a warm bath,” Harry answered, picking up the basket that held Castor and Pollux. “I bet even these two would like a quick swim.”

“They're still so cute,” Gary said, reaching in to pick up Castor, and then Pollux as well when they refused to untangle from one another, overlooking the fact that he was giving their audience a very good look at both baby pokemon. 

“Are those shiny Dratini?” an older man asked. “How much would you be willing to sell one of them for?” The air was suddenly filled with clamors of offers to buy the two baby pokemon, as well as various questions and Gary was quick to set them back into the basket. Harry tried to wait for everyone to shut up before finally having to shout aloud. 

“Shut Up!” Harry yelled at the top of his lungs overpowering everyone else's voices. “Thank-you,” Harry said with a sigh of relief when everyone went quiet. “No Castor and Pollux are not for sale, first because their age makes it illegal, second because I have no intention of giving them up and finally even if I wasn’t planning on keeping them, they would be going directly to my father, you likely know his name, Samuel Oak?” Harry asked rhetorically knowing that they definitely knew who he was talking about. “Due in large part to the rarity of their line, the oddness of their coloring and finally because they are true twins, as in they came from the same egg. Now I will answer questions, but after me and my nephew have cleaned up and gotten some lunch. We will be in the pool area in about an hour, please allow us to leave unmolested.” People shifted out of their way as they exited the training room though a great many of them did their best to catch a glimpse inside the basket that held the two rare pokemon. 

As promised Harry and Gary made their way to the pool area after they’d finished their second showers, and Goldfyre’s bath and got a little food in themselves. Harry brought the formula paste with him to the pool since it was almost time for the little Dratini to eat again anyways. Gary immediately dove into the pool. Dorothy followed though sticking to the shallow end where she splashed and bopped around a pool ball, while Octavian had a great time swimming around with Gary. Zephyr had already settled on top of the pool chair that Goldfyre had chosen to lay in. 

“Alright, one at a time, I’ll point at you and you can ask a question. If you attempt to talk over someone else I will ignore you. Should you become obstinate I will ask one of the staff to remove you, is that clear?” Harry said, sitting on one of the beach chairs so he could set his basket of baby snakes down to mix their paste formula. It was a powder product that he mixed with just a small amount of whole milk, enough to make it a sticky paste but not a liquid. He’d then feed little balls of paste to the little Dratini. As he made the food Harry pointed to one of the women in the front. 

“What is it you’re doing?” she asked. 

“I’m making a baby formula,” Harry said. “What most people don’t realize about pokemon, is despite their various typings most of them still fit within the species categorization of regular animals, this means that pokemon fall within the ranks, of avian, mammalian, reptilian, fish, amphibians, and invertebra. Dratini falls into the reptilian category. As all reptiles, they do not drink milk as babies but rather eat small creatures, eggs, and similar. Regular reptiles do not need to eat as often as pokemon, due to pokemon having a unique physiology. This formula has the necessary proteins and nutrients while still being solid enough that it appeals to young reptiles.” Harry pointed to a young man who had his hand up.

“How old are they?” the man asked. 

“As of today they are four days old still incredibly young,” Harry said as he brought the basket onto his lap and began feeding the pokemon, watching for a moment as they snatched the little paste balls from his fingers. Once or twice he jerked back as a tiny fang caught his thumb but didn’t quite break the skin. Harry indicated for another question.

“They have a unique coloring but you say they’re twins, how is that possible?”

“While it’s not something we have any previous cases to compare it too given that this is the first known, or at least first reported event in which two pokemon have come from a single egg, you’ll notice that despite the unique way they are solidly colored they actually have the coloring of Dratini if you put them together. It’s my belief that the genes that determine the coloring were swapped during their egg’s creation, since they shared the genes entirely, and resulted in Castor being completely blue while Pollux is completely white, but without the red eyes that would be present if his coloring was due to albinism,” Harry answered. “Alright last question, because this is supposed to be a vacation for me just as much as it is for any one of you,” Harry said pointing at the young boy who had pushed his way to the front of the gathered crowd. 

“Can we touch them?” The boy asked. 

“Unfortunately they’re still too young,” Harry answered. “They only let me and my nephew pick them up, they even bit my father when he tried to pet them.” People tried to clamor for more questions but Harry ignored them by laying out on the lounging beach chair beside Goldfyre and lifting the two little snakes to sun on the towel that covered his lap. They hissed nonsensically in happiness, only knowing a few words like _momma, no_ and _yes, bite, pain, warm, cold_ as well as _food_ and could occasionally string two of the words together in order to tell Harry what they wanted. Right now they were telling him how happy they were to be in the warmth of the sun.

Harry laid there for almost an hour, skin slowly darkening while Gary played with Octavian and Dorothy as well as the other children and pokemon who had joined him in the pool. He put Pollux and Castor back into their basket beside him when he flipped to sun his back. Another hour went by and Harry was ready to get out of the sun. Conferring with Gary, Harry left Dorothy’s pokeball with the boy, and took Zephyr with him, Goldfyre and the twins back to the room. 

It took a bit of coaxing to get daily measurements of the twins. Both were growing exceedingly quickly, much faster than the average that the records of baby Dratini believed was normal. It didn’t worry Harry all that much, Goldfyre had gone through a period of exponential growth. Both Harry and his father put it off to the fact that they were born ‘runts’ of their clutches and were simply growing faster as nature's way to allow them to catch up to their siblings. When he was done he returned Goldfyre and Zephyr to their balls before writing a note to Gary letting him know where he was going to be, grabbing the twins basket and heading out. 

In truth Harry had not truly had a vacation his entire life. THe occasional trips he’d taken to the coast, and even the one time he’d visited Hoenn didn’t count because he’d been on League business. Now he was on a professional pokemon journey and was going to be living rough most of the time before he’d have to put in a year of service as a Ranger. This was going to be his first vacation and likely his last one for at least a few years. That meant he was going to milk every last drop of relaxation and luxury out of it. As a VIP ticket passenger, it meant that all activities and services were free for him, with a quick scan of his passenger ID, and he was heading to the ship's full service spa for some personal pampering. 

It was well after dinner by the time Harry finally left the spa. He’d gone through an aromatherapy session courtesy of two Rosarades, a body scrub and mud bath, a full body massage, along with a session in a pond aquarium of Alomomola, a pink fish pokemon that were often caught off of the western coast of Hoenn and likely Kalos though very few ships got to close to the large island due to the aggression they showed the Eastern Republic. They knew and liberally used the move Heal Pulse, an absolutely restorative treatment especially after a slightly painful deep tissue massage. Harry had happily ducked under the water and laid on the floor of the man made pond aquarium for as long as he could hold his breath before floating like the few other people currently taking advantage of the treatment.

He’d even decided to get his hair done. He hadn’t gotten it cut since coming to this world simply letting it grow, due in large part to the fact that it seemed to tame the craziness by weighing it down. It had been simple to put it into braids or ponytails if he needed it out of his face. He certainly didn’t want to shorten it all that much since the messiness would just return, but a little weight off was certainly nice, along with the experiment of colors in it Harry was certainly letting this trip be a trial of experiences. 

His waist length hair was cut back until it settled at a length just beyond the tops of his shoulders. Still long enough to put up in a braid, bun or a tail should he wish and it weighed his hair down that the natural curls and waves didn’t look so askew as they would have if his hair were any shorter. The hairdresser had had just as much fun as Harry picking colors and now his hair had an ombre gradient of it’s normal black to a dark blue to a dark turquoise green at the tips. The deep conditioning wash had left his hair silky and smooth and the hairdresser had cajoled him into allowing her to curl it all, before double braiding pieces at the front to meet at the back in a parallel line before falling into the curls, keeping the hair out of his face. 

He returned to the room with the twins. As a reptilian species pokemon they grew into adult’s faster than most of the more mammalian pokemon, though slower than pokemon that had similar physiology to rodents. He’d be able to officially catch them in two to three weeks, and would no longer have to carry them around with him all the time. For now, considering just how much they slept he didn’t mind. 

Harry and Gary enjoyed the relaxation of the cruise for the next three days before finding themselves on one side of an arena that had been made by removing the partitions between the training halls. There were of course limits to the pokemon who were of a significant weight class, as well as limits on the pokemon moves that were allowed for the tournament. Two pairs had faced off before Harry and Gary were called up to battle. The battles were doubles battles, with two pokemon per trainer. It wasn’t a large tournament, only six teams in total, Harry and Gary would only have two, maybe three battles.

“Dorothy with Zephyr and Goldfyre with Octavian,” Harry whispered, taking in the trainer pair against them. An older gentleman, with a younger man, maybe only seven or eight years older than Harry. Harry and Gary had discussed how they would do the pair ups of their pokemon before but Harry was just saying it to remind Gary. Zephyr could cover for when Dorothy couldn’t use distance attacks, while Goldfyre was a strong offensive battler and Octavian a stronger defensive battler.

“Which team up first?” Gary asked. Harry watched the other team as the ref readied himself, to call the battle. The older man would likely have a companion type pokemon of somesort. Harry watched the gentlemen shift his feet into a shoulder width apart stance, and could see the man’s discerning stare. It hit Harry suddenly, upon seeing the younger man shift into a similar stance, both men were Jenny’s, or in the case of the olderman, was once a Jenny. 

“They’ll both have Growlithes,” Harry whispered. “The older man’s will definitely have more battle experience. I’m guessing they’ll each have a pokemon with a status affecting move as well, or a healing move, self and otherwise.” 

“How do you know that,” Gary asked quietly back.

“They’ve both had Jenny training,” Harry said. “Zephyr and Dorothy out first. Similar strategy that we used the other day, keep Zephyr in the air, I’ll order Dorothy to make the arena misty. It’ll make it harder for Zephyr to fly but it will dull fire type moves and help ward off any spore type status effects since those are the most common type of status moves among grass type which is the most likely kind they’ll have since they have the most variety in status moves,” Harry said, pulling Dorothy’s ball out first.


	5. Chapter 5

“Trainers ready?” the referee called. Harry and Gary nodded as did their opponents. “Battle begin,” the referee ordered. 

“Batter up Dorothy,” Harry called as he pointed at Dorothy's ball and pushed the release. 

“Time to go, Zephyr,” Gary said as he pointed his own pokemon’s ball and pushed the release. Their opponents released their pokemon simultaneously and Harry was correct in his assessment of the pokemon his opponent had. The older man had released his Growlithe, a rather tough looking one at that, and the younger man had a beautiful looking Vileplume that Harry certainly wouldn’t mind getting a closer look at later. 

“Dorothy mist the air, and then start blasting the Growlithe with a Water Cannon,” Harry ordered, hearing the older man order his Growlithe to use Will O’ Wisp on Zephyr.

“To the air Zephyr,” Gary ordered. “Stay out of reach and dodge the attacks. Use Wing Attack on the Vileplume, if any of it’s spores get too close to you or Dorothy, blow them away with your wings,” Gary added as their younger opponent ordered the Vileplume to poison Harry and Gary’s pokemon.

It was a push and pull battle, Zephyr managing to batter the Vileplume into unconsciousness only to be knocked out when Dorothy’s mist wore off and the young man’s Growlithe caught him with a full force, flamethrower knocking the bird pokemon straight from the air, burning him badly and knocking him unconscious. Meanwhile Dorothy managed to take out the old man’s Growlithe only a few moments later with a combination of a Water Cannon, Tackle before finishing with a painfully tearing Ice Fang. Despite the deadly move combination Dorothy caught some wounds of her own, and fell to the younger man’s Growlithe seconds after it was called out, when it smacked her with a duo of Fire Claws, as it dodged one of the newly called out Octavian’s Water Guns. 

The second pokemon the older man sent out almost had Harry hyperventilating with sheer excited curiosity. He couldn’t help himself when he called out to the older man. 

“Could I take a look at your Exeggutor after the battle? There’s never been one available for me to look at at the lab.” The old man chuckled. 

“I’m sure Jordan won’t mind, but we should get back to the battle,” he replied. Harry took the hint and called out Goldfyre, to finish the battle. For a little while all the pokemon managed to dodge the attacks of their opponents, basically playing a game of dodgeball only with water, fire, and psychic attacks instead of balls. 

“I’m going to do it,” Harry said quietly. “Call Octavian.”

“Octavian shell now,” Gary ordered.

“Goldfyre Pyromancer!” Harry yelled. The air got hot as Goldfyre obeyed. Pyromancer was a move Harry and Goldfyre had developed when they’d realized he had an egg move known as Overheat, that a Growlithe generally couldn’t learn. With Pyromancer Goldfyre combined Overheat and Fire Charge as he spewed a Flamethrower. Anything that Goldfyre got too close to during the use of this move was quite literally set on fire. The only problem was that if he didn’t manage a knockout with it he was usually too tired to counter any moves afterwards. Thankfully even with Exeggutor’s psychic typing it still had the susceptibility due all grass pokemon to fire type moves, and the pokemon was unable to put out the fire that had been set on his ferns, resulting in the older trainer having to recall him or risk serious damage. Goldfyre used the last of his energy to tackle the other Growlithe, and although it did do some serious damage it was not quite enough to knock the other pokemon out. 

“It’s up to you,” Harry told Gary as he recalled the exhausted Goldfyre. Harry watched avidly as Gary directed Octavian to use a Water Gun and a Bite to take the Growlithe out. 

“Trainers Oak and Oak have won, and will move on, congratulations,” the ref called. Garry recalled Octavian and both he and Harry walked forward to shake their opponent’s hands. 

“That was well fought,” the older trainer said as Harry shook his hand. 

“It was our first official battle as a duo, we’ll see if we manage to win the tournament before I call it more than a healthy dose of luck,” Harry said. 

“Still that last move from your, honestly gorgeous Growlithe, Pyromancer you called it? It was quite effective, and made it easy for your younger partner’s Squirtle to secure your win,” the older man said. 

“Thank-you,” Harry said, “It’s not a League move but one we developed together through training.”

“I recognized the Flamethrower, and hints of the Flame Charge technique but there was something else. A move that made the very air hot because your Growlithe never actually touched Jordan and he caught fire,” the old man said. 

“Overheat,” Harry admitted. “It’s an egg move for him I believe. He’s a purebred Growlithe so one of his parents likely had a different pokemon as a parent, or even perhaps further back if it was passed down just like for him.” 

“Truly?” the old man said. “Have you ever thought about breeding him?” Harry chuckled a little. 

“I actually made a contract with a Gym Leader who’s currently based in Hoenn, but I’m guessing that you’re meaning more in the terms of a breeding contract for Jenny pokemon?” Harry asked.

“I was,” the man asked. “Is it that obvious I was a Jenny? I know Growlithe are rare for a regular trainer to have, but I hadn’t realized they’d become so rare to almost automatically give away the fact.”

“Harry knew you were a Jenny before you released your pokemon!” Gary pipped up as the four trainers moved together to give their pokemon to the medics to be healed. The medic Harry handed his pokeballs too passed Harry the basket his Dratini were in, having looked after them during the battle. 

“Thanks,” Harry said. 

“How did you know we were Jennys?” the younger trainer asked. 

“Your battle stances,” Harry said. “Trainers from different walks of life all have different battle stances. Most students are taught to keep one foot back and be ready to dive to the side if necessary as well as to make yourself a harder to hit target; the Student’s Stance. It’s the stance Gary uses. I prefer the Athlete’s or Ranger’s Stance although I’ll admit to occasionally slipping into what my father called the Scientist’s Stance if I get too curious. I prefer to be able to move in any direction during the fight, although I know Jenny’s are regulated to cities, you likely know, in the wild, a Trainer occasionally has to fight alongside their pokemon. 

“Wait what?” Gary said. Harry glanced at the boy. 

“Let me guess you didn’t pay attention to survival classes all that much either did you?” Harry asked.

“Um, not really?” he answered. “I paid attention to the first part, like about what pokemon could be helpful, like fire and water so that you always can start a fire and drink fresh water.” 

“That’s something at least,” Harry said, rubbing his forehead. “I do have to wonder how you passed the trainer test though…” Harry trailed off hit with a sudden horrible realization. “Goddamnit tell me she fucking didn’t!”

“Harry?” Gary said nervously. He’d likely never seen Harry mad let alone mad enough to curse. Harry ignored Gary for the moment and pulled out his phone. 

“Hey Steven?” he said into the phone. “I need a favor. I need you to check the League rankings for the Kanto trainer tests this year for a test taken in, one sec,” Harry turned to Gary, “Did you sit for the tests in April or at the end of June?” he asked. 

“Um both,” Gary said, face a little red. “I failed the first one.”

“Fuck!” Harry cursed again. “No not you, sorry,” Harry said into the phone. “Gary Samuel Oak, he took them in April and again in June. You can access the tests themselves as one of the Independent Graders right? Yeah check it and see if the mark correlates. Thanks,” Harry said.

“What’s going on Harry?” Gary asked.

“Something that you’re really not going to like especially as it is no way your fault except for your lack of study skills,” Harry said, with a sigh before listening carefully at the person on the other end of the phone. “No thank-you, I’m going to deal with it. Yeah. Oh and congratulations, I heard you won it in a landslide. Wish I could stay and talk more. Yeah bye.” Harry hung up the phone and signaled to the ref. 

“Is something wrong?” the man asked. “This is the last round before we organize the finalists.” 

“Me and my nephew have to be disqualified. I’d rather not get into just why right now but we can’t continue,” Harry said. 

“But!” Gary tried to protest. 

“Quiet!” Harry ordered. “I may not be angry with you at the moment, but I am angry and I’d rather not end up taking it out on you, okay?” 

“Okay,” Gary seemed meek as he answered. The ref gave a nod and turned to the two Jenny males. 

“You guys up to compete then?” he asked. 

“Yes, we are,” the older one answered, giving Harry a nod already having figured out what was going on. The medics moved to hand everyone their pokemon back and Harry was swift to take Octavian and Zephyr’s pokeballs in addition to his own despite Gary’s confusion. It was that action that caused the younger Jenny to catch on in a clear _‘Oh Shit_ moment. 

“Come on,” Harry said, leading Gary out of the tournament area. Despite Gary’s questions and increasingly nervous ticks Harry was silent the entire way to their rooms. Gary sat on the bed watching nervously while Harry paced back and forth across their room muttering to himself and occasionally glancing at Gary. Finally Harry sat down in one of the accent chairs and pulled out his phone sending a series of texts. It didn’t take long before his phone rang.

“Hello Dad,” Harry said. “No I haven’t told him yet, I don’t know how. Could you? How long? Alright I’ll see you soon. Bye.”

“Harry you’re scaring me,” Gary said quietly. 

“I’m sorry,” Harry said. “I’m not trying to, honest.” Harry sighed. “Can you wait a half hour? My dad is coming. He was in Fuschia and they can see the ship from there, he’s just got to get in contact with the Captain to let him know he’s coming aboard.”

“What does that have to do with it?” Gary asked. “Why did we have to quit the tournament? Why did you take my pokemon? Just tell me!” Gary begged. 

“Please be patient okay?” Harry asked, trying to fight off tears. “I can’t tell you, I don’t want to be the one who has to tell you okay?” Harry tried to take a deep breath to center himself. “Fuck,” He whispered. Gary just nodded, eyes wide as he watched his normally quite centered Uncle try not to lose it. 

Half an hour felt like a lifetime, before there was a knock at their door. Silently Harry got up and answered it. His father stood at the doorway and upon seeing Harry immediately pulled him into a hug. 

“It’s not fair, he’d be a really good trainer,” Harry whispered into his father’s chest. 

“He still can be, just not this season,” his father answered. “I take it you haven't told him yet?” 

“No I wanted you here for that, and so that you can take them into custody before I report it. That way he can get them back when he takes the exams next year, and he could maybe train with them at the lab,” Harry said quietly as he let his father into the room. 

“That’s a good idea,” Samuel said, pushing Harry towards the seat for him to sit once again. Gary looked, if possible, even more nervous that he had only moment’s before as Harry sat in the chair and passed Gary’s pokeballs to the Professor. 

“Can I know what’s going on now?” Gary asked looking in between Harry and the Professor. 

“I realized something today when talking to you, as you already know,” Harry began, doing his best to keep his voice steady and soft. “I realized a while ago that there were a lot of things that you don’t know, but to pass the Trainer test you have to score a minimum of ninety in the survival section. You failed your first test,” Harry said.

“But I passed the second!” Gary protested. “Else Grandpa wouldn’t have let me be a trainer and have a pokemon.”

“I thought you passed the second, and according to the League you had passed the second, but there was as Harry said some discrepancy in the knowledge you didn’t seem to know and the knowledge you would have needed to pass the tests,” Samuel said.

“But I passed, you just said I passed!” Gary said, earnestly. “There can’t be a mistake! There can’t!”

“It wasn’t a mistake exactly,” Harry said. “The person I called, that was Steven Stone, you’ll know him as Hoenn’s new champion but he’s also the son of Devon Company’s CEO and has extensive abilities with computers. I had him look at your test. You are registered as passing and yet when he went in to manually compare your answers you didn’t pass, do you understand?” Harry asked. 

“No!” Gary shouted. 

“I’m afraid someone, likely the examiner themselves, was convinced or bribed to change the records. We have to report it to the League I’m afraid, they’ll revoke your Trainer title. That’s part of the reason Harry called me. Though Harry is a Professor in his own right, he is currently only a consultant to the League and is not able to take permanent custody of your pokemon,” Samuel said.

“What no! You can’t take my pokemon!” Gary yelled, before turning to Harry. “I hate you!” Harry flinched. 

“Enough!” Samuel shouted, causing both boys to jump a little. “Harry didn’t do this to hurt you Gary, had someone else realize what had happened before him there is a good chance they would have been the ones to take your pokemon and you might not have been able to get them back like you will if they come with me.” 

“But,” Gary began to protest again. 

“No,” Samuel said pointedly, stopping the boy from saying anything more. “What’s done is done, and while I know you likely were not involved in the falsification of your marks it happened nonetheless. You can either stay till the end of the cruise with Harry, though I’ll have to take your pokemon with me when I leave or you can come with me, back to Pallet. You can help out at the lab and visit Octavian and Pepper was it?” Samuel asked. 

“Zephyr,” Gary whispered. 

“Ah, Zephyr then. And should you wish it, you’ll have my help in studying for the test so that come next April you can take up your trainer license the moment you pass the test rather than wait for registration day,” Samuel said. Gary sniffled and nodded.

“I’ll come home with you if that’s okay,” Gary said. 

“Gary, for what it’s worth,” Harry said. “I am sorry.” Gary sniffled again though he was clearly trying to make sure that neither Harry nor his grandfather saw him cry. 

“It’s not your fault,” Gary said. 

“Well,” Harry said. “Look on the bright side. Ash is still in Pallet, maybe you can train your pokemon with him even if they are at the lab. And when the time comes he might be up for travelling with you if you end up becoming friends.”

“I’ll never be Ash’s friend,” Gary protested. 

“Like you’d never be mine?” Harry asked. Gary went pink, and the younger boy swiftly changed the subject. 

“I have to go to the bathroom, and then I think most of my things are still packed up and we can go?” Gary asked. Harry didn’t begrudge the boy wanting to get off the ship, he was probably bottling a lot of his emotion up right now and Harry would be lying that he wasn’t a little bit relieved that it wouldn’t be him having to deal with the boy when it all fully hit in a few hours. The moment Gary was closed in the bathroom Harry’s father asked. 

“You know who did it don’t you?”

“Not one hundred percent but, yeah,” Harry said with a sigh. “His mother. What’s that going to do for Dawson’s career?” Harry asked, curious as to what would happen to his brother, even if they weren’t close due to the rather big age gap of just over twenty years. 

“He’ll definitely be recalled, especially if it was Maranda,” Samuel said.

“If you’re being honest there is no one other than Maranda that would have done it,” Harry said. Samuel nodded. 

“He called the other day,” Harry’s father said, “Dawson I mean. He and Maranda haven’t been on the same page for a few years, it didn’t seem too bad because he’s always off on League business, so he let her run the household, but he was talking about separation even then. If there is evidence that Maranda was the one to have the marks changed illegally I think he’ll divorce her.”

“If there is evidence, there is no way that the League won’t charge her with interference, and depending how she got it changed, possibly bribery of a government official. If Dawson divorces her he’ll get custody, and I know he’s your son just as much if not more than I am but you’ve got to admit he’s a shit father,” Harry said. 

“Well, how offended would you be if he gets your room?” his father asked. Harry chuckled. 

“Not at all,” Harry said. “I packed up all my stuff before I left since I knew I wouldn’t be returning for a while.” Harry grinned at his father. “I think you should have opened up an orphanage instead of heading up a poke lab. You certainly are good at collecting us strays.” Any response of his father’s was cut off as Gary left the bathroom. Harry helped him collect the few things that had actually managed to be unpacked from his bags. It was a tearful goodbye with Gary whispering, that he didn’t actually hate Harry while he hugged him. It just drew Harry’s attention once more to the realization of just how young new trainers often were. Harry was technically twenty-four in a sixteen year old’s body and there were times he still didn’t feel old enough for the responsibilities this world gave him. 

It was barely after lunch time when Gary and his grandfather, Harry’s father, left the boat via Pyro. Still Harry felt exhausted and after feeding and measuring his Dratini he almost literally threw himself onto his bed, clothes and all, minus his boots.

He woke several hours later to his stomach begging for a meal, he hadn’t eaten since breakfast and though he’d once been used to eating sparingly he’d gotten into the habit of regular meals and exercise and his body let him know when he’d forgotten something.

Gathering up Castor and Pollux for a quick cuddle before putting them back in their basket, Harry headed up to the dining room for dinner. He was preoccupied with thoughts of what had happened only a short time ago and only briefly registered that the dining room was nearly empty, likely because everyone was watching the tournament finals. He grabbed an empty table and sat letting Castor and Pollux come out of their nest to explore the table. They were still quite small only about the length of his forearm but they had thickened up quite well looking less like little noodles and more like the proud pseudo-legendary dragon snakes they were. 

Harry was quietly eating his seafood and noodle bowl, setting the shrimp pieces aside onto another plate for Castor and Pollux to eat since it seemed to be their favorite. They were slowly being weaned from the formula paste and onto pokefood, but they definitely prefered to eat seafood to everything else. 

“Do you mind if we sit with you?” a familiar voice asked. Harry turned to see the two Jenny’s he and Gary had competed against what seemed like a week ago rather than simply a few hours. 

“Not at all, as long as you don’t mind, well,” Harry gestured towards the mischievous little snakes who had eaten all of the shrimp and were cuddling together on the table in the guise of wrestling. 

“Who would mind a little entertainment with dinner?” the older man asked as he sat. 

“I’m Harry Oak, I don’t think we got the opportunity to introduce ourselves to one another earlier,” Harry said holding out a hand, the older man took it and shook it followed by the younger. 

“I’m Silas Nicoli,” the older man said, “And this is my nephew Lyle Bently. We both know who you are, especially after your little meet and greet by the pool the other day.” Harry blushed as the two men sat down. 

“There were just so many people asking questions, I thought maybe it would be better if I tried to answer them all at once instead of answering them all week,” Harry said. Silas chuckled and his nephew grinned. 

“Occasionally the privileged forget their upbringing and become vultures,” Lyle said. “Though I do have to say they are quite intriguing, even more so after learning of them. I remember you saying their names but which is which?”

“Pollux is the white, Castor the blue,” Harry answered, gently using his fingers to tease the cuddling snakes apart to better show off their distinct coloring, they both protested but Harry persisted, only to suddenly be zapped. “Shit!” Harry exclaimed, removing his hands and looking at his still tingling fingers. 

“Was that a Thunder Wave?” Lyle asked, taking Harry’s hand and looking to see if there were any injuries. His fingers were a little red from a barely there electric burn. 

“An exceedingly underpowered one but yes,” Harry said, happily.

“You’re happy that they zapped you?” Lyle asked. 

“You don’t know what that means do you?” Harry asked digging into his pockets looking for special poke treats he had purchased in Viridian the moment the twins had hatched. His father had used them while teaching Harry in his training of Goldfyre. They were both nutritious but were also flavored with the most commonly favored flavors for various typings. Based on what was known about dragon type pokemon you couldn’t go wrong with flavor as long as you stayed away from anything overly sweet. Harry had carefully picked the treat flavoring carefully, with dried wepar and aguav berry pieces, both of which while not poisonous to humans could cause severe stomach upset and sometimes dehydration due to the sour and bitter flavors respectively. 

“No I don’t,” Lyle said as Harry pulled out two berry pieces. 

“It’s the first time they’ve used poke energy, it means they’re ready to begin some light training,” Harry said excitedly. He pulled two pieces of clam from his dish and put them on the little plate where he’d been putting the shrimp. “Castor, Pollux,” Harry called, getting the two snake’s immediate attention. Harry tapped the plate. “Thunder Wave,” Harry called. Neither snake moved for a moment and then seemingly together they shifted and a little bolt of white yellow energy each, that slammed into the clam meat and made it blacken and sizzle. “Yes good job!” Harry exclaimed, putting a dried berry piece in front of each of them to eat, which they happily did, Castor tossing his in the air before snapping it up. 

“I didn’t realize they could begin training so young,” Lyle said, as a waiter took his uncle’s order. Harry waited until Lyle had ordered to answer the other male’s unanswered question. 

“Pokemon can defend themselves only a few days after hatching if necessary. Breeders agree though that until a pokemon uses poke energy on their own no training should occur,” Harry said, before thanking the waiter as he took the burnt meat away from the table. Seeing that both snakes seemed to be tired after that small uses of poke power he picked them up and put them into the basket that had basically become their mobile nest. They fell into a companionable silence before Silas broke it. 

“Your young companion, how is he?” Silas asked.

“Devastated,” Harry said. “And since the incident had to be reported to the League who will no doubt make a full inquiry and investigation imagine he will be even more so if the perpetrator is who I believe it is.”

“Yes, I had noticed you said, ‘she didn’t’ when you came to the realization. May ask who it is you believe was behind it?” Lyle asked.

“Bearing in mind that I have no actual proof but my own experiences with her enabling behaviour towards her son, a behaviour that he himself is still too young to realize the full extent of, I believe that the most likely to be responsible party is his mother. Unfortunately should this prove true her arrest is impending,” Harry answered. 

“I confess, while I know of both you and your father, I know next to nothing of the Oak family, and even then only your achievements. I didn’t even know you were an Oak let alone Harry Oak until you were introduced during the battle. There has never been a picture of you despite you being a public figure,” Silas said. Harry chuckled.

“The fact that I was underage played a large part in that. Though becoming a professional trainer and registering for the League challenge voids the law against posting a minor’s image in the media due in large part to filmed Gym Battles, I was not subject to it because while a professional trainer I had never registered for the League challenge until this year. Even upon becoming the youngest recognized Pokemon Scientist the media wasn’t able to post my image because my father hadn’t given permission, something I was very much in agreement with,” Harry answered. “I expect that with both my sixteenth birthday and registration having happened it will not be long before the media vultures begin their descent.”

“No I expect not,” Silas said, holding out a piece of chicken, from his newly delivered meal, between his fingers for the little Dratini. Castor was the bravest watching Silas’s hand before darting forth to snatch the morsel and escaping with the same swift movement. Silas did it again letting Pollux get his share. 

“They are very fast,” Lyle said. “I can imagine that will allow them an advantage in battling in the future.”

“Most likely,” Harry said. 

Harry spent the rest of the evening with the two men, going through a multitude of topics. He learned that Lyle had debated becoming a Ranger before ultimately choosing to become a Jenny instead wanting to continue his family’s legacy, and that Silas had once served in the Kantosian Navy before returning to domestic policing. Harry had even revealed his dream to meet a legendary pokemon and have the opportunity to study it. He of course didn’t reveal that his arrival was due to a legendary pokemon’s interference. He got a promise from the other men to come to his room the next day before lunch so Harry could examine the ‘beautiful Exeggutor’ as Harry had called the pokemon. The psychic and grass type pokemon proved as interesting as Harry expected, Harry recording everything he learned and thanking the pokemon for it’s patience.

Despite the distressing situation that had occurred, Harry enjoyed the rest of the luxury cruise as it sailed through the little bay, however he was more then ready to get back to the rougher life of a normal pokemon trainer. Stepping off of the ship was interesting. Harry had not gotten seasick nor even realized how used to the shifting of the ship on the water he’d gotten. Suddenly being on solid ground that didn’t shift beneath his feet made him feel oddly unbalanced. 

He’d liberated the little basket from the ship he’d been using for Castor and Pollux. They’d continued growing and it had been the easiest way to carry them since they were too large to fit in his pocket now. They were only a few grams lighter than the average Dratini and both of them were well within the average length and width of their species. They’d developed nicely, and soft training, they were able to use Leer, Wrap and Thunderwave. Harry was doing his best to try and get them to use dragon energy but he’d had little luck. 

He’d even called his father for advice but it was of little help. His father admitted that the one Dragon move that Pyro knew had been learned instinctually after fighting an Altaria that had used Dragon Pulse. Add in the fact that the few recognized Dragon Trainers out there kept their training secrets close to their chest, Harry was mostly learning via trial and error, mostly error in this case. Still the twin pokemon proved quite intelligent, and were able to fight independently of one another. However when Harry had tested their abilities together it seemed they could instinctively boost one another’s attacks, something that could prove to be absolutely dominating in the future.

Harry had only just checked into the Pokecenter Hotel, having to stay in one of the hostel rooms with four others since the other rooms were fully booked, when his phone rang. His father had rang him a day ago to alert him about the results of the Leagues quiet investigation into how Gary’s results had been altered. Maranda Oak had been arrested as had four other parents, and two League Officials. The League was doing the best to keep everything out of the media and seemed to be succeeding for the most part, due in large part to the fact that so far none of the trainers who had improperly gained their registration had been harmed despite their lack of education. 

Gary had officially moved into Harry and his father’s home and was registered as a Lab Aide allowing the boy to carry Zephyr and Octavian on his person. Unfortunately Dawson had not returned to Kanto, instead reporting for questioning at the main League Headquarters in Almia where he was currently stationed, where he was fully cleared of responsibility and released. It was devastating to Gary that his father couldn’t be bothered to even come home for something as important as this, and Harry knew his father was as disappointed in his son as Harry was in his brother. Harry’s father Samuel, did let Harry know that Gary’s spirits seemed to be lifted when the egg Harry had promised him had arrived. Apparently the boy carried it everywhere, read it bedtime stories and slept curled around it. Oak had sent a picture of Gary and the egg in bed. 

Had Harry not known that the parents of the egg were a Hounddoom and a Growlithe he never would have guessed. Though it was clearly a field class egg, due to it’s oblong shape and patterning of splatter spots, it’s coloring was amazingly unique and Harry’s father had already taken the opportunity to document it. It was a beautiful silver with splattering spots of black, gold and a deep navy blue that was almost purple. There were also a few hints of bronze and copper though they were rarer amongst the colors. Norman Masters had forwarded pictures of the other three eggs his Hounddoom had laid and the colorations were similar, though one of them had more bronze and gold than silver and navy blue. 

Harry answered the phone recognizing the number as his brother’s.

“Hello Dawson,” Harry said, politely keeping the derisive tone that displayed how he truly felt about his brother at the moment out of his voice.

“Why did I not hear from you immediately when you found out that my son had cheated his way into a Trainer License?” Dawson asked immediately without even the veneer of peasantry. 

“Perhaps first, because your son did not cheat his way into a Trainer License but rather your wife did, and second, because you don’t bother to even pretend to be Gary’s father half the time, and I felt little familial urge to alert you,” Harry said. 

“He is my son!” Dawson shouted at Harry through the phone. 

“By blood perhaps you are his father, but considering he’s seen you, what, four times in the past five years, and receives a call once every three or four months from you that last less than five minutes you are certainly not his dad,” Harry answered keeping his tone cool. 

“You have no right telling me what makes a good parent! You have no idea,” Harry cut Dawson off. 

“I have every right!” Harry yelled back into the phone. “You think I have no idea? I remember everything about how I was raised before our dad took me in and adopted me. Sure you have not raised a hand to Gary, but you certainly haven’t actually raised him either!” Harry took a deep breath and when he spoke again his voice was still clearly full of anger though he was no longer yelling. “You couldn’t even be bothered to come home when his world turned upside down due in no fault of his own. We may be family Dawson, but I am ashamed to call you my brother. Don’t bother calling me again until you’ve figured out if you want to be Gary’s father or the man he’ll hear about in passing but will never really know.” With that Harry hung up. 

It took Harry a few moments of steady breathing to center himself. He made his way to the room he’d be sharing for the next few days, perhaps longer depending on when he could challenge Lt. Surge. Hopefully with it having been close to a month since registration day, challenges will have tapered off somewhat to a more manageable amount as trainers dropped out of the challenge realizing the sheer work, expense and skill it actually took. Some would return to try the challenge again when they were a little older and felt more capable, others would choose other routes entirely, seeking higher education or immediate entry into the workforce. 

The room was not empty and currently three of the four people who were occupying the other four beds in the shared room were actually in the room itself. Harry wondered where the fourth was as the three paused the conversation they’d quite obviously been having and watched as Harry walked across the room to the empty bed. Setting his things down Harry spoke. 

“Hello,” Harry said. “I’m Harry, I’ll be staying in this room for at least four days, how about you all?” 

“Nathan,” said one of the boy’s, obviously the most confident of the three. 

“Natalie,” said a girl on the bed beside Nathan, “I’m Nathan’s half sister.” Harry raised an eyebrow, he’d bet that their respective mother’s were not pleased upon finding out about one another, especially since they were clearly the same age, unless of course there was a triad type relationship in place.

“Komo, but I go by K,” said the last.

“Pleasure to meet you all,” Harry said, sitting on his bed Pollux and Castor’s basket beside him.


End file.
